Elements of Sympathy brings together artists who work with refined mechanical and digital processes in contrast or cohabitation with the natural world. Prompted to consider the pharmakon–the ancient Greek term for both poison and medicine–their materials and methods investigate liminal spaces where notions of authorship, activism and bodily autonomy are constantly giving and gaining ground against the artificial aspects of contemporary life. This challenge has resulted in a display of works full of growth and decay, in both theory and practice.

“The value of [the pharmakon] is not in its ability to cure, but its ability to expose the weakness in our thinking, and cause harm to our misguided actions. These artists are calling us to acknowledge significant and complex societal failings across ecological sustainability, systemic racism, and technological co-dependence, and as a matter of course, giving us the freedom for meaningful introspection and communal dialogue.”

—Andrew Christie, Exhibition curator