‘Free Food - Retroactive to c. 6996BC’
11th May - 9th June, 2001
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
"The world is a sacred place and we are part of it. All life on earth is food for someone. Population size is a measure of food availability. There is enough to go around. No fear. No need for salvation. The real work of our time is to re-build deep supportive relationships across the artificial boundaries of class, gender, race and species."
Artist John Stollmeyer is putting together an exhibition of his work, a retrospective of the past 20 years. He’s calling it ‘Free Food, Retroactive To 6996 B.C.’, a title which becomes perfectly clear with an explanation of the theme of the work. The date refers to a time the artist has chosen to represent that moment in pre-history when our cultural ancestors decided to abandon the law of the community of life and to wage war on any species that competed with them for their food. It led to a new style of agriculture that is best described as totalitarian and for the first time created an enormous food surplus. This formed the basis of our present hierarchical society; one that Stollmeyer believes has run the course of its usefulness. His work makes the case for human beings to reconnect with the "flexible" selves we were before that point, in order to go forward now.
"Our world view is no longer viable," he says. "It’s about control and power over nature, and it is no longer borne out by what we see around us. We cannot conquer the world. By the time we conquer the world we would have self-destructed."
Stollmeyer says our culture is collapsing around us, and we’re experiencing "all the symptoms, the alcoholism, the drugs, that the native peoples did when our juggernaut arrived on their continents. If we are going to survive it means changing our vision, getting back to that vision of being completely connected to all life on earth."
One of the artist’s personal favourites is an installation called Paradigm Shift. "This is the piece that says it all, with the two different world views side by side — the one that we operate by now and the one which our Animist ancestors lived, and which we need to reclaim."
But he says it’s not about going back to being hunters and gathers, or taking off our clothes and going back into the bush, but rather about going forward. "We can see that nobody is actually working at creating an egalitarian society. We’re just building higher walls, importing more razor wire, and building more prisons. It seems as though the hierarchies are accepted as the normal way for human beings to behave. This was not true for three million years of our existence."
The exhibition to be held at CCA7 encapsulates Stollmeyer’s thinking thus far, and marks his 49th year: "Seven sevens is a native American turning point, time to take stock, see where everything has come from, where it’s going to. It’s about having the confidence to say this is who I am. This is what I’ve done."
Stollmeyer’s interest in the inter-connectedness of all life is personified in his portrayal of the King Cobo, a robber mas’ that roams the streets during carnival. The King Cobo has gone through several transformations, and is about to change again in a performance piece at the exhibition.
The artist will also be showing some of his calabash and coconut work, as well as paintings, installations and graphic work created over the last two decades.
Stollmeyer’s previous one-man exhibitions were "The Counterfeit", at the Ikon Gallery in 1982 and "D’ RÆL T’ing", Aquarela Gallery, 1994. Last year he and sculptor Susan Dayal produced "Work in Progress" at Gallery 1.2.4.3.
Free Food, Retroactive To 6996 B.C will be on display in The InterAmerica Space at CCA7 from 11th May until 9th June, 2001. Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm. On Tuesday 15th May there will be a performance by "Nikita B’, followed by an ‘Open Forum’ facilitated by the artist, at 6.30 p.m.
As part of CCA’s Talk Series
John Stollmeyer will lead a seminar on the topic "No One Right Way to
Live" on Tuesday, May 22, beginning at 6.30 pm. There is no cover charge