Rodrigo Hill / Karen Barbour / Declan Patrick / Alberto Alvarez-Jimenez / Xavier Meade

Solastalgia: Conflict and the fabric of life is an exhibition of transdisciplinary creative practice, bringing together paintings, photography, video of dance, text, sound, performance and embodied experiences. As a representation of multiple facets of research, the exhibition explores curatorial possibilities and multimedia installation strategies to articulate and discuss how embodied research in the arts and social sciences informs the interpretation of international humanitarian law.

The pivot point in this transdisciplinary research is the investigation of the concept of solastalgia – the civilian experience of pain and distress caused by destruction of home, in worn torn environments. Bringing un-alike disciplinary knowledges into dialogue through embodied research, art practice and installation, the principle of proportionality in international humanitarian law is interrogated, challenged and discussed.  

This exhibition is the result of a collaboration between researchers in Te Kura Toi School of Arts and Te Piringa Faculty of Law at Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato University of Waikato, with the support of community collaborators.

Solastalgia: Conflict and the Fabric of Life was exhibited at Ramp Gallery in August 2023