“Maladaptation” or a failure to adjust adequately or appropriately to the environment or situation highlights a state of paralysis that may result from intense or increased anxiety or fear. Created on-site at Laundromat Art Space, in the Little Haiti district of Miami, FL as part of a three-person show entitled “Waiting Room”. Maladaptation refers to a failed coping mechanism that acts as a thematic thread in Watkins’ work and ongoing research.
In line with previous installations of this nature, the work is made up of an accumulation of discarded household objects scavenged from the nearby streets. This act of seeking out objects of want/need aligns with the psychological struggle that occurs when society or the individual attempt to cope with circumstance, instability, and even seemingly simple daily tasks.
Reflecting on the concept of waiting, not just in daily life, but its grip on contemporary society in recent years, “Maladaptation Sits,” personifies the underlying neuroses as the illusion of a human sits, waiting, unable to face the chaos of the mind which it is enveloped. This is a continuation of Watkins’ examination into the relationship between the internal experience and the external, public sphere.