Over the past 5 years, Jenna Faye Powell’s work and research has centred around the fictional and non-fictional sides of the climate crisis. Examining popular culture’s varying interpretations of ‘eco-anxiety’, Powell re-positions cinematic tropes found in bombastic apocalyptic blockbusters to advance a contrasting position of climate optimism termed as dark euphoria.
Powell’s Smokestack Published Edition, Quiet in the Cup, stems from her deep interest in this alternative outlook. Coined by science-fiction author, Bruce Sterling, dark euphoria defines a perspective that is at once filled with both doom and hope for the future. With Quiet in the Cup, Powell presents a lava lamp as a symbol for the thematic range of dark euphoria: an object to represent interpersonal sanctuary and survival in the face of imminent disaster; a decorative vessel associated with such a naturally destructive force as lava, produced for the experience of temporary peace and happiness. Quiet in the Cup also evokes a pseudo-psychedelic motif, reminding Powell of the lava lamp’s resurgence in popularity when she was a carefree, suburban teenager. Leaning into nostalgia, Powell aims to evoke feelings of blissful ignorance and its perils.
In that vein, Powell’s practice is underscored by feelings of ineffectuality and futility in making artwork about the environmental crisis, and she looks to practical ways to reduce one’s carbon footprint within both her practice and lifestyle. These perspectives manifest further in this print with the presence of the air conditioning unit, another creature-comfort and planet-warming culprit. Here, the swirling hum of energy emanates from the lava lamp and air conditioner, directly linking consumption with comfort.
Collaborative production of Quiet in the Cup with Smokestack Analog Printmaker, Laine Groeneweg represented Powell’s enthused return to the printmaking medium after a 15-year hiatus. As she shares,
It was great to be reminded of what can be done in the medium again. I gained a more intuitive understanding of print outside of an academic setting which was more strictly focused on traditionally technical and formal methods and approaches to printmaking. The creation of this print was a blast — we were able to respond to the image as it took shape, and the process was much more instinctive and even spontaneous.
