SUSANNE SLAVICK

Manila envelope with text and photograph; 13.75 x 9 inches

Alfredo Jaar is a self-described news fanatic whose conceptual works attempt to decode the true meanings of images, thus exposing their subliminal effect on our consciousness. In September 15, he withholds the image, with instructions for limited viewing: “This envelope contains a photograph by Alfredo Jaar of Karl Marx’s grave in Highgate Cemetery, London. The purchaser of this work agrees to view this image only once a year, on September 15, the anniversary of the day Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy in New York.” In 2008, Lehman Brothers was just one of the major financial institutions that were supposedly “too big to fail” in the worst global financial crisis since The Great Depression. It was the Pearl Harbor of Wall Street, but some were not surprised. Many saw the crisis as the inevitable result of the fatal flaws of capitalism. Some awaited its collapse and hoped for the revolution that Marx believed arose from such crises. Jaar describes himself as an intellectual pessimist with an optimistic will. The once-a-year access to his enveloped image is a reminder that vacillates between the promise of revolution—and its endless deferral.

Natural Selection: The Rise of the Proletariat, one of Michael Mallis’ first animations, presents an absurdist encounter between Karl Marx and Charles Darwin—two major revolutionary thinkers of the 19th century. The men did not know each other personally, but, in 1860, Marx praises The Origins of the Species: “Darwin’s work is most important and suits my purpose in that it provides a basis in natural science for the historical class struggle.” Mallis shows all kinds of struggle in his animation, set on the Galápagos Islands. It begins with an exhausted proletariat and a bourgeoisie celebrating its greatness and proceeds through a dubious evolution and a frenzied revolution. Once equality is attained, de-evolution ensues, ending with a dictatorship of the proletariat and Marx hammering away on a mountaintop. Pools of blood blossom continuously, accompanied by a mournful accordion and nonsensical yodeling. Darwin and Marx are both to blame, and Darwin ends up dead, too. Though Darwin never finished reading Das Kapital, he politely wrote to its author: “Though our studies have been so different, I believe that we both earnestly desire the extension of Knowledge, & that this is in the long run sure to add to the happiness of mankind.” With the resurgence of social Darwinism and the continued abuses of capitalism, Mallis is not so sure.

Video, 7:15

Natural Selection: The Rise of the Proletariat, one of Michael Mallis’ first animations, presents an absurdist encounter between Karl Marx and Charles Darwin—two major revolutionary thinkers of the 19th century. The men did not know each other personally, but, in 1860, Marx praises The Origins of the Species: “Darwin’s work is most important and suits my purpose in that it provides a basis in natural science for the historical class struggle.” Mallis shows all kinds of struggle in his animation, set on the Galápagos Islands. It begins with an exhausted proletariat and a bourgeoisie celebrating its greatness and proceeds through a dubious evolution and a frenzied revolution. Once equality is attained, de-evolution ensues, ending with a dictatorship of the proletariat and Marx hammering away on a mountaintop. Pools of blood blossom continuously, accompanied by a mournful accordion and nonsensical yodeling. Darwin and Marx are both to blame, and Darwin ends up dead, too. Though Darwin never finished reading Das Kapital, he politely wrote to its author: “Though our studies have been so different, I believe that we both earnestly desire the extension of Knowledge, & that this is in the long run sure to add to the happiness of mankind.” With the resurgence of social Darwinism and the continued abuses of capitalism, Mallis is not so sure.