Peter Happel Christian: Work Life Balance

Work Life Balance is an iterative exhibition of photographs and sculpture by Peter Happel Christian that studies and imagines homeostasis as the primary desire of modern life. Through a range of subject matter that draws from personal narratives and economics to gestures and objects, Happel Christian’s installation meditates on the namesake of the project, a phrase made popular in the last half decade, and its natural antonym: “play death imbalance.” Imagined by the artist as an equally valid inversion of the popular, aspirational platitude, Happel Christian’s work entangles the sentiments of each phrase as a guide to follow. Photographs document moments of ingenuity and surprise or imagine humdrum actions as mystical gestures, while sculptures capture the fatigued body’s need for rest or support.