This Is Fine was one of the most widely known memes of recent years. It represented situations in which events became so overwhelming that one refused to accept them. The work also referenced the meme Lasagna or Doom Level?, which questioned the reliability of visual information in an age of deepfakes, asking whether a scene showed a burning building or simply a lasagna.

The installation was dominated by images of lasagna and screenshots from the video game Doom. The walls and floor were covered with these images, creating a continuous visual environment. Visitors could sit at a table and immerse themselves in the absurd reality in which the end of the world was linked to the banal aesthetics of a prepared dish, or in which both were scrolled past with indifference. A cozy living room that seemed to be sinking into a sea of flames presented resilience as a final, almost ironic, escape.

The work was realised as a walk-in, immersive installation and included a wooden table, two wooden chairs, three cups filled with moldy coffee, and a sound installation developed in collaboration with composer Gabor Csongradi.

The work drew on the two memes as its conceptual backbone. This Is Fine visualised cognitive dissonance in response to catastrophic conditions and portrayed ignorance as a strategy of self-protection. Lasagna or Doom Level? pointed to an information stream flooded with deepfakes, raising the question: was it burning, or was it lasagna?

Visitors were invited to stay in the space. The installation explored the capacity to tune things out and asked to what extent sensory overload, as experienced online, contributed to desensitisation.

The work was part of Alicia Agustíns solo exhibition Funny yes but not Funny Haha at Kunstverein Hildesheim.                                        

https://www.kunstverein-hildesheim.de/ausstellungen/funny-yes-but-not-funny-haha/

Funny yes but not Funny Haha was conceived as a site-specific work and developed collaboratively.                        

Concept: Alicia Agustín                                                                                                                                                                  

Artistic collaboration, exhibition design, production management : Charlotte Rosengarth
Project collaboration: Polly Bruchlos
Sound design: Gabor Csongradi                                                                                                                                                                                    

📸 Frederik Preuschoft