Seasonal Depression
about
Paul Spendier: Seasonal Depression
At first glance, the space suggests a picturesque holiday image that
evokes our collective desire for wellness. But on closer inspection, the sterility
of the landscape, manifesting itself in steel, branchwood, and
plastic, resembles a rather dystopian imitation
thereof—what is authentic about this natural environment anyway? Seasonal Depression unfolds, dismantles, and reconnects our ironclad notions of
the binary oppositions natural-artificial,
individual-collective, and real-authentic.
The discourse around our current era, the Anthropocene, addresses the
irreversible intervention of humans in their environment that has been fuelled by
capitalism and colonialism. However, the notion of a pristine nature has always been
fallacious: “The evolution of our “selves”
is already polluted by histories of encounter; we are mixed up with others
before we even begin any new collaboration”, writes Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing in
The Mushroom at the End of the World. The cherry tree placed in the
centre of the space loses its ability to change, which humans take over from now on. Thanks to magnets and screw caps, it
is dead easy to take the tree apart using the building-block concept, just to put it
back together again according to individual preferences. Here, nature
is completely subjected to the visions of the rational homo oeconomicus who wants to conquer and dominate it, while at
the same time does not want to recognise himself as part of it. The cherry tree rests
on a pedestal made of stainless steel, which uproots it from its
surroundings and turns it into an aestheticized reminder of the illusion of unruly nature. When trying to capture a
piece of nature in a certain moment, any
possibility of symbiotic collaboration is denied, which ultimately results in
the subjugation of the environment.
The motif of playful intervention is also reflected in the colourful
sculptures scattered on the ground.
Model aeroplanes painted in the corporate identity of major airline companies
take on the circular form of the ouroboros; the snake that bites its own
tail. In the holistic form of the ouroboros,
opposites are united as everything is encased in it. The sculptures thus become hybrids of machine and animal in the bright camouflage of consumerism,
endlessly incorporating the inseparable connection between industry, the
environment, and responsibility.
Two shiny stainless steel deck chairs of high quality complement the
scenery. They radiate the kind of wealth and exclusivity that one hopes to gain from
their possession. The chairs' armrests follow the conjunctures and
depressions of the economic crises of 1981 and 2008, two events that carried the greed for profit to extremes and
further exacerbated social discrepancies.
While the misery of the many degenerates into a variable on the graph, the profit of the individual converts into a desirable piece of design
furniture. In Capitalist Realism: Is There No
Alternative?, Mark Fisher analyses how ”[c]apitalism seamlessly occupies the
horizons of the thinkable” culminating in the apparent lack of alternatives to
"capitalist realism". In the place of
collective utopia, there is now only enough space for the lush excess of the
individual, who indulges in luxury on the shoulders of the community. Seasonal
Depression critiques extractivist practices through playful irony and
highlights the possibilities of artistic intervention within that system.
Sophie Publig