1-channel film
full HD, 16:9
3:37 min
The video work “Recalibrate your mind” is a visual accumulation of 186 inspirational quotes found online via different websites and social media platforms. Recreating the typical look of color-testing screens generally used within monitor calibration procedures, it critically questions the current popularity of self-care content on social media by investigating the concept of positive affirmations shared by self-proclaimed mental health coaches and within online communities.
Deprived of their usual aesthetic consisting of cursive fonts and corny background visuals, the work aims to put a critical twist on these mantras by entirely reducing them to their actual messages, focusing on their shallow, oftentimes contradictory nature as well as the repetitive use of specific terms and keywords. Through its purposeful simplicity with a simultaneous state of restricted legibility, it comments on the on-going rise of toxic positivity while indicating the particular significance of related themes such as subliminal messaging and the philosophy underlying the so-called “Law of Attraction” as contemporary manifestation practices, finally revealing the conflicting impact within these contents as a form of concealed disapproval of serious mental health issues in relation to the psychological effects associated with the pressure of constantly having to suppress any negative thoughts and feelings.
*In addition of the original implementation as a video installation, the artist has also created an Instagram account (@recalibrate_your_mind) specifically dedicated to posting one of the 186 quotes displayed within the work in chronological order everyday.
(2025)
(WATCH FULL VIDEO HERE)