Deirdre Keough for The Institute of Queer Ecology, Diapause, 2020
Diapause is a work by Deirdre Keough that is produced by Lee Pivnik for the Institute of Queer Ecology (IQECO) and scored by Kara Holder and Ilya K with 3D animation by Sam Balfus and Keough. IQECO is a collaborative organism that seeks to imagine and realize an equitable multispecies future. Through curation and production, IQECO lays the groundwork for a (bio)diverse utopia.
With Diapause (2020), IQECO confronts a by now eerily familiar landscape of deserted office spaces with moments of touch, apparitions of moths, and other coded references. The video, authored by Deirdre Keough for IQECO, takes its title from a biological phenomenon in which the development of an organism is temporarily paused due to adverse environmental factors. The notion of diapause as a condition takes on new meaning today with the world largely cocooned at home, waiting to emerge into a new form that our actions will shape. As COVID-19 and climate change reveal the structural inadequacies of our public support systems, Keough speculates that this breakdown might prove generative and introduce transformational change.
ICA Miami’s Digital Commissions series is made possible by the Knight Foundation and expands the museum’s commitment to fostering artistic experimentation and commissioning new works, as well as engaging audiences with innovative artistic voices.