#387-90 Capital
128x168 cm (64x84 cm each panel) | Filler, oak frames
About
I tried to do some simple splits in the wet filler while wearing clogs and a blindfold for this work. I used paper cups as support.
The word is derived from the Latin "capitalis", which means "of the head" (caput). In capitalism, capital, the means of production, comes from the head and the work thus from the body. The separation between body and mind, that is, between the subject and its bodily abode, is, therefore, an essential part of the inner logic of capitalism. The symbolic - language is given a more significant value at the expense of the Real - raw materiality. As capitalism develops, criminal correction shifts from the punishment of the body to the discipline of the mind. Since it is only the mind that has value, it is the mind that needs to be controlled, not the body. Corporal punishment has now been largely abolished, and capital punishment has also decreased in scope. Both methods assume that the mind (the subject) is indistinguishable from the body (matter). It is incompatible with another separation within the capitalist system, namely the economic exchange from labour that generates it. If the subject can not be separated from the body, the profit from the production apparatus can not be expropriated by the head - the capital, but rather belong to the whole body, i.e. also the workers - the employees.
Paper Cups
Paper Cups is a series of paintings with imprints from regular paper cups. The kind you get from fast food places, and the kind that often is used by people begging in the streets. The series takes its starting point in the matter of economic resources and begging as a subversive act in a system of capitalism and neoliberal policies.
It is also about the priority of material conditions in a broader sense, as in historical materialism but also as in gaining agency for demands as a group. For a movement, a protest or an insurrection to become a subject, an agent with the power to act, it needs to ground its ideas in practical solutions, in a psychoanalytical sense to move from the Imaginary to the Symbolic. This entails touching base with the void of the material Real, where pureness of the intent - the initial message, always will get somewhat polluted and distorted.
Sabotages
The shoes worn to produce this work is a modern variant of clogs made in plastic. In French, clogs are called "sabot", which is the basis for the word sabotage. The soft ambience of the bourgeoise was shattered when the working-class entered a room with their wooden shoes. Another reason is perhaps that the workers allegedly threw their clogs into the automatic looms when introduced in France to protest, making them redundant.
In another way, you may also call this work a sabotage (in the sense of a collage or frottage) as it is made by clogs.
Clogs is the shoe of the common people, the shoe of the working-class. Historically made in wood for use in factories and on the fields, but today, healthcare workers widely use the plastic version. It is also popular as leisurewear for the mainstream or the so-called masses.
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.Video documentation
See video documentation of the performative production event here.
