Totalities, a “contemporary living installation” by Chris Johanson, can be experienced at Deitch Projects from September 4th – October 18th. The exhibition presents the artist’s thoughts on contemporary living, involving, plants, animals, and people, expressed through a multi-media construction incorporating paintings, sculpture, installation and musical performance.

The exhibition’s major theme is the planet earth and its place in the universe. There is also a meditation on the natural world of plants and animals and how they live within themselves, and how they are effected by humans, with an emphasis on recycling. All of the wood used in the exhibition is recycled. Almost all of it comes from New York State and most is retrieved from dumpsters near the artist’s Brooklyn studio and from discarded art shipping crates. The artist asks his friends and acquaintances for scraps of wood, endeavoring to give the wood a third life. He uses the beautiful, natural history of the wood with all its scars to prolong its life and build an entryway back into nature. Johanson talks about the degradation of the planet and the beauty of the world through his art, reminding people of their responsibilities.