Growing up I was surrounded by Catholicism in a provincial Italian town. Mother Mary or ‘Madre Maria’ where scattered everywhere as a symbol of faith and as a token of appreciation. This religious object, like many others, was quotidianly evoked with prayer by surrendering to the mysteries of faith. On a road near my house was a particularly dangerous corner with a dedicated small statue as a protector. Mary seemed to be used as a tool towards the uncontrollable or unknown. A way of understanding the ungovernable. In a similar logic, the complexities of Capitalism are ‘understood’ by OpenCo’s own Material Religion. This cult provides a diagram for a kind of speculative research into Capitalist logics, going beond the rational in an attempt to answer to the moral challenges of the 21st century.
To enable a reorientation of what is known as the field of Cargo Cults [1] from an anthropological field that exoticises others, it is helpful to frame the critique of anthropology as an ‘invention’, not a representation of culture. Cargo Cults, understood as mimetic portrayals of European colonial culture have often been viewed as ‘irrational’ indigenous misunderstandings. [1] The anthropological positioning from the original reflections of cargo cults in early writing describes the events as “‘mad’ hysterical and irrational, locating them in a pre European past”. To these often called ‘Material Religions’, [2] Capitalist structures of wealth seemed seemingly inextinguishable.
Western material value in a Capitalist arrangement acts as the essence for the expression of personhood and agency. Lindstorm anchors the term ‘Cargoism’ in a domestic terrain suggesting our own “insatiable wanting” .
Cargoism is nothing less than the Melanesian world view applied to the task of providing meaningful interpretation of European culture. -Ton Otto
Capitalism, we could argue, holds dominance over our lives and material wealth has become the current disproportionate valuing system. In other words, the economy has become a privileged institution that is dominated by economic metaphors of production and consumption. If the Cargo Myth-dream was to comprehend the ‘secret’ of the colonisers material possession, I’m seeking to understand the oppressive waste structure we are part of.
Ton Otto describes Capitalism as a dialectic of economy and religion, the same dialectic that Cargo Cults derive from. [1] A contradiction between two central valuing systems briefly summarized as spirituality versus materiality. A dialectic to the struggle of making sense of a world in which wealth only seems to be created “in forms of power / knowledge that transgress the conventional, the rational, the moral...” I am not alone in connecting the Millenarian drive that appears inherently in Capitalist expansion and certain instances of Cargoisms. [3]
We can make productive comparisons between millenarian Capitalist tendencies by looking at the OpenCo Consumptive practice. A productive misunderstanding or an attempt to make sense of Capitalism and its insatiable waste infrastructure by the invention of myth in order to regain agency. OpenCo’s own Millenarian belief of a transformative event via traditions of repair, reuse and regeneration as answers to the existential and moral challenges of the 21st century. [2] In the studio I have been making models of my favourite Capitalist vessels. Symbols of production and abandonment. Vessels provide diagrams for a kind of speculative research into Capitalist logics, rules and theory. The mystery of creation, represented using Capitalist iconography. These are the places where I find all my materials, a sort of sacred space. I create these icons in hopes of material prosperity.
Our Lady the 120L Wheelie Bin a Homage a homage, the domestic portal to the waste infrastructure constructed from found family photographs and found hot glue.
The 40 ft container a connector of global supply chains. Made from discarded imported timber and found hot glue.
In reaction to a world in which the only way to create real wealth seems to lie in forms of knowledge that transgress the conventional, the rational, the moral, I create these icons in hope of material prosperity.
Citations
[1] Otto, Ton. What Happened to Cargo Cults? Material Religions in Melanesia and the West. 2009, 83-97.
[2] Lindstrom, Lamout. Cargo Cult at the Third Millennium. 2004, 17.
[3] J. Comaroff and J.L. Comaroff as seen in Otto. What Happened to Cargo Cults? Material Religions in Melanesia and the West, 2009, 95-96.
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