Plague

is narrated by a frustrated housefly that fantasizes about human extermination in an attempt to allegorise ecological and mental breakdown.

Plague, 2019
single channel video installation, 04:51 min. looped HD projection, sound system, ‘french fries’ cardboard sculptures in various size approx. 244x45x45 cm, produced site specfically

Edition of 5
Plague was co-commissioned by DordtYart / Mondriaan Fund and acquired by the Zabludowicz Collection, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Servais Family Collection, EKARD collection, Blue Knowledge Art Collection.
2025, Okra-Homa Projects, Beijing, China
2025, 'Great God What An Awful Place', Durst Britt Mayhew, The Hague, NL
2025, 'Echoes Of Nature', BAC Art Space, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2024, Biennial Of The Possible Image, Liege, Belgium
2024, Solo, Platform Post, Arnhem, Netherlands
2023, 'Hors d’Oeuvre', Cercle Cite, Luxembourg
2023, 'Humor', Voegele Kunst Zentrum, Pfaeffikon, Switzerland
2022, 'Fun Feminism', Kunstmuseum Gegenwart Basel, Switzerland
2022, 16th Lyon Biennial: Manifesto Of Fragility, Lyon, France
2021, Solo, Wroclaw Museum Of Contemporary Art, Poland
2019, Solo, Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK
2019, DordtYart, Dordrecht, Netherlands

With her keen taste for humour and the absurd, Puck Verkade lays bare the contradictions of human behaviour in drawings and videos. The video Plague, presented in an installation made of giant cardboard chips, explores the concept of solastalgia, a feeling of distress caused by the consequences of our climate crisis. This surreal tale, told by a fly that fantasises about exterminating humans, spawns odd analogies between exploited Earth and the tormented psyche. Presented as a moving collage of images and sounds, juxtaposing various animation methods, the video thus succeeds in linking environmental and mental breakdown.

Central to her interest when working on Plague was the concept Solastalgia. It is a sociological term coined by environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht that describes a form of mental or existential distress caused by climate trauma which is changing our shared habitat. This is what compelled Verkade to tell the story from the point of view of the housefly. Usually the housefly is regarded as a domestic pest, an invasive species that plagues our homes. However, compared to the melodramatic housewife, here the housefly is very articulate. It functions as the messenger between the indoor and outdoor worlds, breaking up the confines of the housewife’s psyche.”