DRIFT: FRAGILE FUTURE

In Fragile Future, multidisciplinary duo DRIFT presents an ecosystem of kinetic installations, film, and sound that together compel us to imagine alternative conditions for a positive future. With a soundtrack by ANOHNI, Fragile Future takes visitors on a choreographed journey through a series of interconnected artworks exploring the universal desire to seek out purpose and connection, as well as the power to be found in embracing change. The exhibition and its related series of special experiences (on select dates in The McCourt) build on DRIFT’s past works in which founders Lonneke Gordijn (b. 1980, Alkmaar, the Netherlands) and Ralph Nauta (b. 1978, Swindon, United Kingdom) explore our connection to our planet and its natural processes.

The works illuminate parallels between natural and human behaviors, blurring the boundaries that define what are normally contrasting or opposed conditions—not just man versus nature, but order versus freedom. Visitors first encounter Fragile Future, the namesake of the exhibition, a sculpture which consists of bronze electrical circuits connected to light-emitting dandelions, wherein two seemingly opposite entities have made a pact to survive. In Coded Coincidence, a dance of shimmering beaded lights move as a group or break away to freely follow their own trajectory. The pattern of these illuminated beads is based on the springtime flight of elm seeds, which travel by the random forces of wind. Coded Coincidence flows into Ego, a large block made of hair-thin threads suspended in midair. The block continuously alters its shape as though it is responding to varying emotional states, from a seemingly inflexible and imposing rectangle to a vulnerable and yielding presence. A film presentation then offers a portal to another world. Here, a group of heavy concrete blocks, or Drifters, navigate both familiar and imagined environments, magically floating through lush nature and dystopian urban settings in search of a collective but yet unknown destination.

The exhibition culminates in a transition from the digital to the physical realm, as a monumental concrete monolith appears in the gallery, weightless and hopeful. On select dates, the exhibition opens up into a surreal immersive experience that spans The Shed’s four-story-high, 17,000-square-foot McCourt space. In this unique experience, a congregation of Drifters dances on the air in an ethereal atmosphere, in counterpoint to a soundtrack by ANOHNI.