euphoria, 2009
Site-specific installation
Convenience gallery, Toronto
Press Release
euphoria is a site-specific installation created for the convenience gallery window-front. Opening just one week after “Blue Monday”, in the season when the body’s serotonin levels inevitably plummet and circadian rhythms waver due to lack of natural daylight, euphoria aims to offer passers-by relief from seasonal depression.
The installation consists of seven full-spectrum light boxes and strands of suspended magnifying squares. This combination of elements is designed to produce an emotionally stimulating public artwork, harnessing and amplifying the therapeutic properties of ‘healing white light’. The light boxes are in operation daily from 6:00 AM - 12:00 AM.
euphoria is part of a larger body of work that investigates the unscientific pursuit and consumption of alternative health practices in Western popular culture. Whether effective or not, the SAD lamps represent contentious terrain where hope, health, technology, and truth intersect.
euphoria, 2009
Installation view
euphoria, 2009
Installation view
euphoria, 2009
Installation view
euphoria, 2009
Installation view
euphoria, 2009
7 SAD-therapy lightboxes, magnifying sheet, invisible thread
Documentation by Kotama Bouabane