The Half-Life of Love

Borrowing its title from the final lines of This Is How You Lose Her — Junot Díaz’s collection of short stories chronicling the fallout of infidelity — The Half-Life of Love explored the melancholic experience of romantic encounter: the heady sensation of first looks, the affective ebb of time, and the traces of a lover’s absence. The exhibition featured work by an intergenerational group of artists including Jordan Casteel, Cynthia Daignault, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Curran Hatleberg, Deana Lawson, Dave McKenzie, Kambui Olujimi, Valeska Soares, and Billie Zangewa. Ranging in tone from honeymoon to heartbreak, they presented love as a social contract, at once rife with possibility and precariousness.

The Half-Life of Love was made possible by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in support of MASS MoCA and the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art. The exhibition was curated by Margo Cohen Ristorucci, a second-year student in the Williams College Graduate Program.

Deana Lawson, Binky & Tony Forever, 2009