Tinna Guðmundsdóttir

Spinning Wheels 

Stál, timbur, þörungalím, þrjú kefli, efni frá heimilishaldi, iðnaði og stofnunum /  

Steel, wood, seaweed glue, 3 bobbins, fabrics from domestic, institutional and industrial resources 

160 x 160 x 360 cm

2022

“We and things”

On average, for each person on the globe, anthropogenic mass equal to more than his or her bodyweight is produced every week.[1]

Presently, the most urgent problem Earth faces is the ecological crisis and the role of humans in this multi-layered catastrophe. In the past decades, our lifestyle and consumption culture have gone through drastic changes. To ease our daily struggle we produce various commodities which are considered vital for our modern problem solving. Among the consequences is a pile of waste to which we have become accustomed. But how do we take care of ourselves without harming the environment?

Contemporary consumer culture has a ripple effect that drives many destructive factors in our behaviour towards the environment. For example, a recent study has revealed that man-made mass, such as metals, asphalt, bricks, gravel, concrete, wood, glass, plastics etc, surpassed all global living biomass in the year 2020 (±6). When waste is also included in the calculations, man-made mass exceeded biomass in 2015 (±5). This development has dramatically accelerated over the past 100 years and approximately every 20 years, man-made material has doubled in mass.[2]

Political theorist Jane Bennett claims that there is a rift between humans and things. Bennett states humans have an oversimplified view of the world and that everything is divided into two groups, us and things. And by detaching us from things, greed and over-consumption have taken over. She points out that things have powers; for example, fatty omega 3-acids have the power to alter our mood [3] and electricity can choose a path of its own.[4] Non-human things can literally make a difference, produce effects, and alter events.[5] By maintaining the division, us and things, we deny agency or vitality of things. Bennett suggests that the vital materiality of things should be recognised in political decision making.

There is a thin line between care and violence. While we humans perceive that we are taking care of ourselves, we are in fact perpetrating violence to our planet, her ecosystems, and our fellow non-humans.

[1] Elhacham, E., Ben-Uri, L., Grotowski, J. et al. Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass. Nature 588, 442–444 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-3010-5

[2] IBIT

[3] Bennett, J. Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), p. 41-42.

[4]  IBIT, p. 24-28.

[5]  IBIT, p. 6.

[6] Elhacham, E., Ben-Uri, L., Grotowski, J. et al. Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass. Nature 588, 442–444 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-3010-5

[7] IBIT

[8] Bennett, J. Vibrant matter: A political ecology of things. (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), bls. 41-42.

[9] IBIT, bls. 24-28

[10] IBIT, bls. 6