field notes from the wild
2019
mit Mirjam Kroker
Buchbox mit Einführungstext von Laura Sánchez Serrano
The book box field notes from the wild documents the multifaceted exploration of the themes of wilderness and civilisation and was first presented in the exhibition lost in shrubland at Aural Galèria in Alicante and then at the Maximiliansforum in Munich in the exhibition Lauschen & Lauern (Listening & Lurking). This took place in dialogue with art historian Laura Sánchez Serrano, who wrote the introductory text for the book box and accompanied its creation. field notes from the wild is not a regular publication. Rather, it is a pseudo-scientific journal, a portable exhibition, an entire universe in a box. The box was published in a limited edition and contains several unique items as well as photographs, drawings and texts.
You have just opened Pandora‘s box. This is a door to the wild, the unknown, to the deepest and most essential elements of human nature: to ourselves.
You have just opened Pandora‘s box. This is a door to the wild, the unknown, to the deepest and most essential elements of human nature: to ourselves. Find, within this box, results from the ongoing research of Judith Egger, following her (almost) scientific protocols. She starts with the observation of those natural events that attract her attention; she pursues them, analyzes them, photographs, draws and describes them, trying to get in contact with them. A creature halfway between vegetable and animal walks, disoriented, in the big city. The same “uncharted life form” appears in the middle of the forest under the snow; on a lonely road; or forming an almost plastic composition as it merges with a container, a pile of tyres and other industrial detritus, found in some rural area. Egger’s camera captures the movements of this fascinating being and shows us its fragility, its loneliness. In her images, she blends together the familiar and the absurd, creating visual narratives filled with humour and melancholy. But what exactly is this creature? A mutation, a new species? Or perhaps it is a metaphor of the human condition, bewildered by the noise and stress of a capitalist society, a society that distances us from our most essential origin: from Nature?
Find, within this box, results from the ongoing research of Judith Egger, following her (almost) scientific protocols.
Egger pursues her field research further, by going on nocturnal expeditions through the forest. These experiences (Naturerfahrung) are depicted in her landscape photographs, which show the magic of Nature in the silence of the night. In „Transmission Wood“ she builds her own tools to establish some sort of communication with the “wild”. Equipped with large antennae, formed by a mass of branches attached to her body, she explores the deserted streets of Paris in search of remote signals. Along with the photographic material, her scientific journal includes traces of Naturalia – printed on paper are the notes, poems, records of conversations, official documents and preparatory drawings, which emerge during the creative process. Both „detecting an uncharted life form“ and TRANSMISSION WOOD are part of an ongoing artistic project that aims to analyse the complex relationship
between Western contemporary society and the concept of „wild“, focusing on the tensions between civilization and nature, between human construction and natural chaos. Egger uses scientific methods in such a way as to question their limitations on the great conundrum, that is to say – what is the meaning of our existence? Through her sometimes ironic actions, full of their own poetry, the artist makes us reflect on the processes of dehumanization, appealing to awareness. She forces us to awaken from the intellectual lethargy we suffer, in a society that ignores its origins, destroys its environment and endangers its own existence.
content
1 root I multiple I acrylic paint I 30 x 19 cm
2 the language of plants I multiple I spray paint on japanese paper, charcoal, pastel I approx. 96 x 80 cm
3 the tree senses I drawing I oil pastels and pencil I copy on transparent paper I 21 x 29,8 cm
4 uncharted life form I 7 digital photographs on Fujifilm III gloss I shot by Manuel Eitner I 20 x 30 cm
5 nocturnal expeditions into the wild I 6 digital photographs I inkjet on Hahnemühle „William Turner“ I 13,5 x 7,5 cm
6 TRANSMISSION WOOD, video film I 6 video stills by Valéry Faidherbe on Fuji Premium Paper I 15 x 20,5 cm
7 TRANSMISSION WOOD I exhibition details, sometimeStudio Paris, 4 photos by Margault Lamoureux I 10 x 15 cm I 1 exhibition view by Judith Egger I 15 x 22 cm
Hahnemühle PhotoRag I 1 photographic document of the antenna costume by Ramuntcho Matta on Fuji Premium Paper I 15 x 10 cm
8 antenna (TRANSMISSION WOOD) and distant relatives I Hahnemühle FineArt Pearl I 21 x 15 cm
9 permission to film on the street at night by the Parisian townhall, 29,8 x 20 cm I colour copy
10 WhatsApp conversation with sound artist Michael Northam about trees I colour copy I 29,8 x 20 cm
11 first sketch for the antenna I pencil sketch from sketch book I spring 2018 I inkjet print I 29,8 x 20 cm
12 handwritten quote from Andreas Weber and his book „Sein und Teilen. Eine Praxis schöpferischer Existenz“ I transcript Verlag 2017 I inkjet print I 30 x 20 cm
13 quote from Charles Eisenstein and his book „The Ascent of Humanity“, Evolver Editions 2013 I inkjet print I 30 x 20 cm
14 quote from Eduardo Viveiros Castro from his book „Cannibal Metaphysics“ I University of Minnesota Press I inkjet print I 30 x 20 cm
15 cotton archival gloves
Die Box ist in einer Auflage von 20 Stück erschienen, mit großzügiger Förderung durch die Golart Stiftung.