Juno Calypso’s series, What to do with a Million Years, takes us on a haunting journey through a subterranean world.
The setting for this eerie series is the underground house built by Jerry Henderson, CEO of Avon Cosmetics, in Las Vegas in the 1970s. The house was constructed to protect Henderson and his wife in case of a nuclear war, and its luxurious interiors are far from the average bunker. Complete with plush carpets, gilded chandeliers, and a swimming pool, the bunker is a sight to behold. The pink interiors and artificial garden also add to the kitsch aesthetic.
Calypso’s photographs are a beautiful yet unsettling reflection on death, life, beauty, and the terrifying experience of being alone in a space. The images capture the isolation and eeriness of the bunker, and the feeling of being trapped underground. The photographs also explore the relationship between a person and their surroundings, and the imprint we leave on architecture.
What makes the series even more intriguing is the fact that the underground house is now owned by a mysterious organization called The Society for the Preservation of Near Extinct Species. The society is a group of people who want to live forever and have all signed up to be cryogenically frozen when they die. Calypso’s photographs are influenced by the cryonics magazines she found in the house, and the images are snapshots of a woman trapped underground, slowly going mad and morphing into an alien.
The photographs have a cinematic quality to them, and the setting feels like the perfect setting for a horror movie. Calypso’s use of lighting and composition adds to the unsettling feeling of the images. The series is a reminder of our mortality and the fragility of life. It’s also a testament to the power of art to capture the beauty and terror of the human experience.
