Benedikte Bjerre, High Hopes, 2018. Mixed media. Courtesy of the artist
biosphere of the planet. At the same time, biologists are warning us that we are currently in the midst of the sixth mass extinction of animal and plant species.33 Artists Silas Inoue, Astrid Myntekær, Nanna Abell and Benedikte Bjerre address a range of different aspects of the climate crises and their connection to global capitalism. The artists challenge humanity’s way of life by exploring the polluting, inequality-making systems in which we are all entangled, and they zoom in on the other species and materialities with whom we share this planet. Chains of desire In Benedikte Bjerre’s High Hopes (2018), the viewer comes face to face with a large conveyor belt. Suddenly we find ourselves at a seaport or airport where various commodities and consumer goods are being shipped across national borders. On the conveyor belt are large pillows representing boxes and suitcases – some are half-open, giving us a glimpse of the goods being exchanged, such as lemons, jewellery, washing machines,
corn and coconuts. Bjerre is interested in capitalist logistics and the political realities that underpin them. She examines the movements of goods and the culture of consumption and desire that drives the global market. The conveyor belt is built from bed bases from IKEA – a mass-produced, inexpensive product now made available in more than fifty nations worldwide to be purchased by a growing middle class. In conjunction with the title of the work, these bed elements let hopes and dreams take centre stage. The work addresses issues of social mobility and the desire for the good, capitalist life across global borders. Bjerre takes a conceptual approach, working with found objects, so-called ready-mades, and with readily available and inexpensive materials such as fibreglass and, not least, plastic, a ubiquitous feature of everyday culture and one of the most polluting materials of our time. Plastic waste ends up at the bottom of the oceans and in the stomachs of whales and fish, and microplastics and various
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33 As concluded by 450 experts on the IPCC. See: Jørgen Steen Nielsen, ‘Først FN’s klimaforskere, nu FN’s biologer: Omstillinger uden fortilfælde er nødvendige i alle dele af samfundet’, Information, 7 May 2019.