Of time spent and time to be regained. Equivalencies and mediations. Moments of the world and those that exist within the world. There is potential in keeping it all at a distance, and something else in attempting to embrace the wind.

Justin Balmain's solo exhibition at LON Gallery speaks to our relationship with digital devices, as objects that reposition our encounters with the natural world. One year ago, 2025, is a meticulously constructed animation that juxtaposes imagery of the natural world with mediated experiences that occur through the smartphone.

Jonathan Crary, in 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep, describes how the speed and anxiety of our hyper-connected culture generate a state of perpetual activity and unceasing capitalism, profoundly shaping social life and altering our relationship to the natural world. The work’s title, One year ago, references the speed at which we presently move through technology, and how it, in turn, moves through us. At one year old a smart phone is already obsolete, replaced with a newer equivalent that sparks capitalist desire. Anxiety that the tech we hold, will never stand still.

A series of intricate drawings and fabric works accompany the sculpturally installed animation, depicting imagined states of nature interacting with, or obstructing, the flow of connected digital culture. Birds native to Djaara Country, where Balmain lives and works, populate these drawings: a Southern Emu-Wren rests upon a typing hand, a Splendid Fairy-Wren perched atop an Apple Pencil working its way across a tablet. Adding complexity, a backdrop of counterfeit designer scarves stages manicured visions of nature—floral motifs, ornamented Hermès horses—underscoring the cyclical, extractive entanglement of the natural, fabricated and technological worlds.