Glossopteris (or Eduard Seuss)

Mikhael Subotzky
Glossopteris (or Eduard Seuss) , 2019
Ink on Micropore tape
Work: 51.5 x 45.5 cm

Eduard Suess, a 19th century geologist, is credited as the originator of the theory of Gondwana, a supercontinent that existed until the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago) and consisted of two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, the Indian Subcontinent, Zealandia, and Arabia. Suess based this theory on the discovery of fossilised ferns, Glossopteris, which were found both on the African and South American continents.This work is part of a series deconstructing the “fathers” of various Western schools of thought and study. This work is part of the series Massive Nerve Corpus, which included a number of works where photographs and found images were printed on micropore surgical tape, a bandage that covers and protects like a temporary skin where the body has been opened, but which can also be used to constrain movement. Its physical presence on paintings and collages thus became an important element in the deconstruction of white masculinity through a focus on the dichotomy of power and vulnerability. These works were created as part of the collaborative residency project Conversations in Gondwana (Centro Cultural São Paulo), staged in 2019. Mikhael Subotzky collaborated with artist Clara Ianni on an installation including these works. About the collaborative installation: Triangulation. The tracing or measure of a network of triangles in order to determine relative positions of various points. The use of two or more methods in a study to check results. The navigation of the unknown by the convergence of measurements taken from two known points. Coalescing. Collaboration. The triangulation of ideas, thoughts, images, texts. A navigation towards an unknown point. Multiple points of thought, encounter, meeting. This project has existed in the ether, attempting to triangulate between Brazil and South Africa, the intermittent flow of messages, voice notes, emails, photos. Months. Then an in-person encounter in London. London, the birthplace of Eduard Suess, the originator of the theory of Gondwana. Gondwana. A supercontinent, floating in the past, a land without borders existing in the present. These borderless exchanges, connected in a tangle of wire and electrons, the infrastructure of the art world. Our practices have passed through all of these, triangulated here, in the physical. Here, on this wall. Here, on the tip of the triangle.