When is Empathy too much?

CURATORIAL NOTE

In this age of pandemic, as our physical engagement with the world has declined, we have increasingly relied on the unending media deluge of audio-visual information to connect with the outside world. Our window into the events and happenings of the outside world has become the screens of our devices. Our locus of understanding has been shifting away from the physical world in steady increments over the two decades, and with the advent of lockdown this phenomenon has exponentially exacerbated. When is Empathy too much? refers to the inevitable saturation point that we all know too well, as the virtual domain becomes another phantasmagoria of the modern age. This exhibition calls attention to the changing nature of our perception of the world, the changing perception of the self, the sensory shock of digital overload and how this affects our emotional engagement with works of art. All the artists address empathy, and by extension connection/disconnection, adaptation/maladaptation in various different ways; the personal, the social and the political. The exhibition explores the notion of art as a conduit to empathetic engagement, revealing the human experience behind the works.