Strange Times by Hu Qiren

When we think of perishables, we look at their use-by date. In an era priding ourselves on productivity and pragmatism, an expiry is an indicator of prioritizing sustenance and adhering to consumption at its ripest. To ensure we remember, we gather this data of production in the most concise way: Marking a ‘best before’ statement of numbers and dates in order to serve a timely reminder for the shelf life of our goods. Strange Times traces the why’s and how’s of such self/artistic preservation, what it takes to contain and manufacture a visual image at its freshest, and finally, to whom and when we are proclaiming our intrinsic use-by/ best before dates to.