#326 New Normality
64x84 cm | Filler, oak frame
About
What is perceived as normal in the normative sense varies over time. This is a crucial battleground for powers that wish to influence society in a repressive and totalitarian direction. The repression of marginalised groups is what primarily characterises a totalitarian movement. Pushing the boundaries of what these are expected to endure, what is perceived as acceptable treatment, opens up a space for fascist policies. Dehumanising descriptions are presented as criticism within the field for freedom of expression. By attacking several areas simultaneously, one manages to create confusion and internal conflicts, thereby weakening any organised resistance. It is important to stress that there is a connection between far-right fascist groups that transgress normality, and the establishment of neoliberal policies, with the dismantling of welfare solutions and ethical, solidarity-breaking norms at the centre. Visibly alienated groups create a regime of fear, which in turn enables mass submission to the inexorably hierarchical and performance-based system capitalism is, in its purest form.
Tablet
To the mind, a word is always also an image. In that sense, understanding words function no different than normal perception. When we see, images are constructed inside the mind. We never perceive reality objectively or in itself. Perception is an interpretation and thus consist of language, in the same manner as understanding words.
However, to use language, we have to speak or write it. We have to realize it. Nothing ever communicates without being inscribed into a matter of some sort. But how words are inserted into reality affects how we perceive them. Thus reality itself seeps into language. There exists no clear or unmediated communication. Matter adds to the message. Because which matter we choose to communicate through, and how we shape it, reflects on who we are, it can reveal unconscious or hidden meanings.
Humans inscribed the first written words in stone or clay. One of the purposes was to save them for the future, to protect them from the volatility of time. To speak, or to write, is always to some extent, an act of power. The receiver must initially submit his or her attention to the message. No matter how insignificant, its meaning will always in some way change the receiver forever.There is a constant tension between language and reality as matter. The human subject is defined by an individual will, as opposed to the strict causality of nature. This will strive to be expressed through language. Maybe self-awareness is a result of language at use. Language as a way for the ego to invent itself, to inscribe itself into the world. It is no coincidence that many of the first examples of texts are curses, prayers, laws or inventories — different ways of trying to influence and master reality.
Res Ipsa
Res Ipsa is a compilation of works made by an act shaping the filler once it is prepared inside the frame. The works thus function as a recording device and give a statement of the event taking place while the filler was still wet.
Res Ipsa is Latin for "the thing itself" and is part of the juridical term "Res ipsa loquitur" (the thing speaks for itself), used when an injury or accident in itself clearly shows who is responsible, such as an instrument left inside a body after surgery.Studio Release
Watch a video of me presenting this work in its premiere public appearance here.
