Toad on the moon

Happily Ever After examines the relationship between optimism, apathy and the persistent idea of life as a linear progression towards resolution — a point at which everything finally falls into place. Drawing on Lauren Berlant’s notion of ‘cruel optimism’, the exhibition considers hope, superstition and small gestures of reassurance as ways of navigating uncertainty, while questioning when these might also become forms of stasis.

Through a series of small-scale wall sculptures and a textile installation structured around the phases of the moon, Happily Ever After sets the promise of a definitive ending against cycles of growth, decline and renewal. Moving between humour, anxiety and hope, the exhibition asks what remains when the promise of ‘happily ever after’ gives way to a continuous process of beginning again.