OMNIVOR415 (Eden)
film-photograph on baryte print
60x40cm
Edition 05+03AP
Frankfurt am Main
2019-20
Already the Omnivor is watching us. Sneaking up behind our civilisational backs it is on the brink of consuming us entirely. At a time in geologic history when the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide surpassed 415 parts per million it is hard to imagine the Omnivor backing off again and the human reintegration into the spheres of nonhuman dominance not to happen. In order to depict the urgency of our planetary status quo i researched the biological term of the Omnivor as a symbol for nonhuman agency in the anthropocene. Following my point of view this biological expression fits the role of nonhumanity as an omnipresent force that will not hesitate to reinclude humanity into its planetary corpus. For a proper visualization of this metaphorical concept it appeared to be necessary to create a body of work that could widen the viewers imagination to hypothetical future circumstances. Using analogue multiexposures seemed to be appropriate. Entirely working with film and not using any digital postproduction i had to trust my compositional instincts to arrange the multilayer combinations incamera. The result is a series that shows architecture (representing the human sphere) and nature (representing the nonhuman sphere/the omnivor) in a dance-like process of amalgamation that is meant to evoke ambivalent feelings in the recipient. On the one hand the ballet-like aesthetics and the sheer beauty of a seemingly fruitful and almost sexual hybridization may let us take a glimpse at a positive future in which we welcome the Omnivor and proactively work on human merging with nonhuman spheres. On the other hand the images might be seen as depicting a future in which the Omnivor as a nonhuman tsunami-like predator simply overwhelms us, forcingly reintegrating every aspect of manmade culture back into itself.
