Spiritualiteit, funksionaliteit, kommoditeit: die kunswerk as spel en fiksie

Abstract

The artworks in the Propitas project make playful commercial offers aimed at participating beholders. The nature, function and approach of the works are informed by a discernible spiritual, commercial and financial climate within households. Changes within this climate can be indicated which correspond to a shifting alignment towards the things in which contemporary households, communities and societies place their hope and trust. My works especially thematise the ways in which these shifts are expressed as fathomable longings for consolation, nurturing, guarantees and enchantment.

It can be expected that the consumer market will anticipate these longings and will react to them in the form of countless commercial offers. Consequently, insurance and security products are repeatedly cited in my work. Insurance and, to a degree, security products, involve future-directed projections that make uncertainty exploitable to the consumer market. Both sectors also aim to affectively placate and sooth fears regarding possible future occurrences of disruption and calamity. Of interest is the fact that contemporary religious institutions take a commercial approach and make similar reassuring offers. The existential security that they once offered communities has been diluted to the emotional affectation of reassurance, nurturing, mystery and enchantment. The use of the term ‘spirituality’ in various contexts pertains to the longing for experiences that are simultaneously enchanting and soothing. In the fictional and satirical guarantees and reassurances that my works offer, a claim is laid to functional pragmatic attitudes and the emotional longing for deepening and enchantment – an inconsistent, contradictory dynamic I refer to as ‘spiritual functionalism’.

My research is aimed at understanding the condition, creation and dynamics of the relevant social inclinations, dispositions and longings. Shared fears and anxieties play a cardinal role within the shaping of communal life worlds, since they mirror what is regarded as good, right and desirable. Underlying communal anxieties and uncertainties often manifest as certain indicative narratives. Of interest is that elements of play, enchantment and delight comes to the fore in the narrative processes, through which anxiety and uncertainty is stabilized.

The socio-historical development of capitalism and industrialisation, as well as the triumph of rationality and secularisation in the West, has left contemporary societies with a number of sources of discontent. The ‘image of the good life’ towards which people aim their efforts and hope, is plagued by pluralities, contradictions and unsatisfactory solutions. In the wake of the credibility crisis within which traditional religions currently find themselves, ‘spirituality’ offers a defence against discontentedness but without opposing the existing consumer climate. I suggest that the dynamic of spiritual functionalism that is visible in my work offers a convergence of contradictory dispositions and addresses the above mentioned dissatisfactions.

The above mentioned dispositional conditions culminate within the domestic circumstances of white South African middle class households, but are by no means exclusive to them. Some of the elements that these households are furnished with (security and insurance products, as well as styles of decor), suggest an exceptional alertness towards the assault of fate as well as an overwhelming fear of disruption. Within these households, there is a reliance on material and financial circumstances in order to maintain fantasies and fictions regarding ‘lifestyle’. An attitude of fortification and escapism is observable in this fictitious lifestyle, towards which the consumer market and spiritual institutions undeniably react.

The approach of the artworks in the Propitas project is satirical, playful and tongue-in-cheek throughout, an attitude that encourages the supposed beholder to play along imaginatively. Since the works present a playful, fictitious commercial offer, the beholder assumes the implied role of a supposed purchaser. The beholder must assume the skilful, discerning attitude of the commercial consumer in order to ‘buy in’ to what the works ostensibly offer. The imaginative participatory play offers numerous possibilities of discovery and resistance towards the existing obscuring effect of the consumer market and stated soothing fictions.

Die kunswerke in die Propitas-projek maak speelse fiktiewe kommersiële aanbiedings gerig aan deelnemende betragters. Die aard, funksie en aanslag van die werke word ingelig deur ʼn waarneembare spirituele, kommersiële en finansiële klimaat binne huishoudings. Daar kan veranderinge in hierdie klimaat aangedui word wat verband hou met ʼn verskuiwende gerigtheid teenoor dit waarop hedendaagse huishoudings, gemeenskappe en samelewings hul hoop en vertroue vestig. My werke tematiseer veral die wyses waarop hierdie verskuiwings tot uiting kom as peilbare versugtinge na paaiing, koestering, garansie en betowering.Dit is te wagte dat die verbruikersmark dié versugtinge sal antisipeer en daarop sal reageer in die gedaante van talle kommersiële aanbiedinge. Gevolglik word versekerings en sekuriteitsprodukte herhaaldelik in my werk aangehaal. Versekering, en tot ʼn mate sekuriteitsprodukte, behels toekomsgerigte projeksies wat onsekerheid diensbaar maak aan die verbruikersmark. Beide sektore dien dan ook om ʼn paaiende, sussende effek tot stand te bring teenoor die vrees vir moontlike toekomstige insidente van ontwrigting en rampspoed. Van belang is dat godsdienstige instellings hedendaags so gekommersialiseerd geraak het dat hulle soortgelyke gerusstellende aanbiedinge maak. Die eksistensiële sekuriteit wat hulle eens aan individue en gemeenskappe gebied het, is afgewater tot die emosionele affektasie van gerusstelling, koestering, misterie en betowering. Die gebruik van die term ‘spiritualiteit’ in verskeie kontekste hou verband met die hunkering na ervarings wat tegelykertyd betowerend en sussend is. In die fiktiewe en satiriese garansies en gerusstellings wat my werke aanbied, word daar aanspraak gemaak op funksionele pragmatiese ingesteldhede en die emosionele hunkering na verdieping en betowering – ʼn teenstrydige, weersprekende dinamiek waarna ek as ‘spirituele funksionalisme' verwys. My navorsing is daarop ingestel om die toestand, ontstaan en dinamiek van die sosiale gerigthede, disposisies en versugtinge wat hier van toepassing is, te verstaan. Gedeelde vrese en angstighede speel ʼn kardinale rol binne die totstandkoming van gemeenskaplike lewenswêrelde, aangesien hulle dit wat as goed, reg en gewens beskou word weerspieël. Onderliggende gemeenskaplike angstighede en onsekerhede manifesteer dikwels as sekere veelseggende narratiewe. Van belang is dat daar elemente van spel, betowering en verlustiging na vore tree in die narratiewe prosesse waardeur angs en onsekerheid stabiliseer. Die sosiohistoriese ontwikkeling van kapitalisme en industrialisasie, asook die oorwoekering deur rasionaliteit en sekularisasie in die Weste, het hedendaagse samelewings gelaat met etlike onvergenoegdhede. Die ‘beeld van die goeie lewe’ waartoe mense hul strewe en hoop rig, word geplaag deur pluraliteite, weersprekings en onbevredigende oplossings. In die vaarwater van die geloofwaardigheidskrisis waarin tradisionele religieë tans verkeer, bied ‘spiritualiteit’ verweer teen dié onvergenoegdhede maar sonder om teenkanting te bied teen die bestaande verbruikersklimaat. Ek stel voor dat die dinamiek van spirituele funksionalisme wat in my werke bespeurbaar is ʼn konvergensie van uiteenlopende disposisies behels en ook bogenoemde versugtinge aanspreek. Die bovermelde disposisionele toestande kulmineer binne die huishoudelike omstandighede van Suid-Afrikaanse wit middelklashuishoudings, maar is geensins uniek daaraan nie. Van die elemente waarmee dié huishoudings ingerig word (sekuriteits- en versekeringsprodukte, asook dekor-style), suggureer ʼn besondere paraatheid teenoor die aanslag van die noodlot sowel as uitermatige vrees vir ontwrigting. Binne hierdie huishoudings word op materiële en finansiële omstandighede gesteun om fantasieë en fiksies aangaande ‘leefstyl’ te onderhou. ʼn Gesindheid van fortifikasie en ontvlugting is waarneembaar in dié fiksie-agtige lewenstyle, waarop die verbruikersmark en ook spirituele instellings onteenseglik reageer. Die aanslag van die kunswerke in die Propitas-projek is deurlopend satiries, speels en tong-in-die kies, ʼn houding wat die veronderstelde betragter aanhits om verbeeldingryk saam te speel. Aangesien die werke ʼn speelse fiktiewe kommersiële aanbod voorlê, neem die betragter die geïmpliseerde rol van ʼn veronderstelde aankoper in. Die betragter moet die vernuftige, oordeelkundige houding van die kommersiële verbruiker inneem om ‘in te koop’ op wat die werke aanbied. Die verbeeldingryke deelnemende spel bied etlike moontlikhede van onthulling en weerstand teenoor die bestaande verdoeselende effek van die verbruikersmark en gestelde paaiende fiksies.