In the middle of the artist’s book published in conjunction with her gnomic and unsettling Queens Museum exhibition, The Wandering Lake, 2009-2017, Patty Chang puts forth a stunning meditation on the role of art in the Anthropocene. Contemplating the practice of Japanese Ama divers, who descend as much as sixty feet underwater without breathing equipment, Chang cites mid-century scientist Pierre Dejours on the four stages of underwater breath-holding: the “easy-going phase”; the “gasping point”; the “struggle phase”; and the “breaking point.” According to Dejours, the struggle phase begins with involuntary gasps for air and ends, if the diver cannot get back above water in time, with loss of consciousness and, shortly thereafter, death.

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