Take Once Daily
This exhibition included installations, video work, and other interventions that talk about self-care, self-help, and self-medication. All three of these terms are incredibly divisive, and yet, we all engage daily with repetitive habits that can be attributed to each category. Their boundaries are often blurry. And while it's easy to criticize the multi-billion dollar industries behind self-care, self-help, and self-medication, it doesn't exempt us from having to recognize their roles in our lives.
It can be challenging to allow ourselves to be introspective and honest about our habits. This exhibition aimed to help you question and take stock of what habits in your life you should start, stop, or alter.
I don’t know, maybe this will work.
There are endless habits, hacks, and home remedies available to us on the internet. Some of these tools offered are healthy, some get a bit bogus and comical, and some are outright dangerous. We can’t always know what works for us, but sometimes it’s worth trying something new.
The first thing you learn is that you always gotta wait.
Improvement lives in limbo. Each habit we try to start or stop requires a lot of patience, time, and waiting. Depending on the habit we are working on, this waiting can feel exhausting and impossible. It can also feel active and tense. No matter how the waiting feels, it is an essential component of self-care, self-help, and self-medication.
(re)(re)(re)(re)(re)(re)Rewatch
Repetition can be a great tool for self-care, self-help, and self-medication. Rewatching shows or movies, rereading books, relistening to music, repeatedly going on the same walk are all healthy ways to use repetition for self-care. Many studies show the benefits of rewatching TV shows as a positive coping mechanism for those with anxiety because it provides active entertainment without the stress of anticipation.
Take Care
Keeping up healthy practices takes care, patience, and endurance. There is a tension and weight in the constant efforts to keep up these healthy practices. But it isn’t fact that letting go of certain practices always results in disaster.
Room to Breathe
It’s important to learn how to regulate our breathing. There are many situations when it would be helpful to have a room dedicated to being still and taking a breath? Stressed at work? Take room to breathe. Exhausting family event? Take room to breathe. Socially drained at an art opening? Take room to breathe.
The second thing you learn is that you always gotta wait.
The physical act of waiting is inevitable in self-care, self-help, and self-medication. We wait for improvement, appointments, results, change, etc. The liminality of waiting can also be an active space for reflection and learning. Take a seat and wait a minute. Read some books from the shelf, contemplate, learn how to be comfortable waiting.
Thank you to Third Dune Productions for the documentation photos.