Rebecca Moccia ‘Nostalgism’

The exhibition investigates the political context of psychological and emotional states of being. The origins of nostalgia mirror the emergence of Western modernisation and the onset of the Industrial Revolution. Its connection to feelings of homesickness began to also represent a longing across physical and temporal spaces for those separated from their homelands through migration, labour and military service. Setting aside sentimentality, Moccia exposes how nostalgia is exploited to govern and direct emotions by evoking an idealised past and driving nationalistic and ideological interests.