Stoic philosophers, such as Marcus Aurelius, believed that without an ever-present sense of

death, life would be insipid. Anna Landa’s sound work ‘The Fear’ embodies this line of thinking, challenging viewers to contemplate their own mortality at a moment of collective uncertainty. Her installation is a celebration of existence in all of its messiness, the moments that came before as well as those yet to come. In acknowledging life’s finite nature, it is imbued with value and meaning. Like clockwork, the heart defines the duration of a life with its regular rhythm. Landa has harnessed her temporary nature by creating a countdown synced to an audio track of her own recorded heartbeat. The work was inspired by her lifelong preoccupation with mortality and fueled by a scientific study that found all mammals to have approximately 1.5 billion heartbeats over the span of a lifetime. Humans also shared this trait before recent advances in hygiene and healthcare significantly lengthened their lives. The countdown began in 2012 and is accessible online for the approximately forty-two years it will run before the screen goes blank. With this work, Landa hopes to invite a sense of curiosity by pointing to impermanence as inherent, and to inspire reflection and discourse on the often overlooked moments that saturate our existence.

The installation resembles a quaint dining room, a table set for dinner, a television in the corner; and plants, books, and other knick knacks stacked on end tables along the walls. The table settings are coated in white paint and attached to a white tablecloth as though frozen in time, along with the remnants of a dinner party like crumpled napkins and ashtrays with cigarette butts. A projector angled downward displays a pre-recorded dinner party, precisely mapped to the blank canvas of the white table settings, creating an eerie combination of 3D objects and 2D projections interacting. Sounds of laughter, conversation, and music are faintly audible in the background, as though from a distant memory or a dream. The narrative is meant to evoke feelings of nostalgia—memories of dinners with friends and family, and celebrations of lives well lived.

The countdown continues on a television set in the corner of the room, the heart beating in

concert with the dinner chatter. During the hours that the installation is open to the public, the viewer can also experience the sound of the heartbeat via bone conduction by placing their elbows on the table and covering their ears.