“Substation” is an immersive subterranean installation that focuses on current interests in secrecy, security and escape. Krapp looks at what happens when these familiar desires are misplaced: what structures are made, what objects emerge? Using cast off materials, Krapp has built an environment that is part childhood fort and part survivalist bunker, conflating whimsical play with paranoid terror.

Through a trap door, viewers are asked to descend into the “Substation,” an architecture that houses various prompts that are in opposition with one another. While one room appears to be a meeting place for the beginning of a revolution, an adjacent space presents the opportunity for mischief. These rooms contain every emergency item and vice needed to fight, retreat, or hide: Molotov cocktails, fire extinguishers, blankets, etc.

Krapp uses text throughout the various compartments to denote certain objects, differentiating it from its common use. Through these labels Krapp presents alternate narratives. Terms like “Don’t Give Up the Ship” or “I am Not Sorry” propose a dialog between the inhabitant and their environment, a back and forth between the strong and pathetic, the smart and stupid, the playful and dangerous.

Krapp will continue to develop “Substation” over the course of the exhibition, with performance events culminating into the closing reception.