The project is a "sociopolitical poetics of sudden collapse" using a minimal grammar: two everyday objects (scissors, tools, organic remnants) confronted one-to-one. Rather than a sentimental bond, intimacy is staged as a precarious equilibrium—a "negotiated tension" that persists only while forces remain counterweighted. The series functions as an "experimental laboratory of affect" by splitting its truth across two mediums: Photography (The Ethical Moment): Arrests the objects at the exact moment when balance still holds. It represents love's aspiration for endurance, memory, and stasis. Video (The Traumatic Index): Lasting only seconds, the videos record the merciless instant of collapse, separation, and breakage. These are unrepeatable events where failure is presented as systemic rather than melodramatic.
Conceptual Themes
Gravity as Co-Author: Gravity acts as a silent ethical force. The inevitable collapse mirrors the late-capitalist condition where labor, attention, and relationships are structured by exhaustion and imminent fracture. Material Lexicon: Objects like a lightbulb paired with a pipe cutter (ULS 2) or a croissant (ULS 44) are not props but "actors" with mass and friction. Love as Infrastructure: The work suggests love is architectural—requiring constant calibration and support. The collapse is not a failure but "evidence that connection was attempted".
Project Scale
The total body of work encompasses 1,000 objects divided into 500 photographic pairs and 500 videos. The short-form videos on YouTube are an intentional choice to provide a "cold clarity" where affect is produced by structure, not by expressivity. Explore the full series context through the provided links: Unstable Love Series Blog:
