EXTASIE, 2009 – 2010 by Tumim & Prendergast
PURE SPIRITUAL LOVE
I like a challenge - so apparently did the metaphysical poet Henry Vaughan. Choosing to portray his vision of eternity, he’s been credited with writing the most breath-taking opening in English poetry:
“I saw Eternity the other night.”
Tumim & Prendergast’s new work EXTASIE presents us with an intellectual challenge. Sweet wrappers spell out the word “extasie” but actually we’re looking at a piece of hardware – a big lever in fact – wall-mounted. This will become more evident later.
The unusual spelling takes us back in history – to the 17th century and the metaphysical poets. In fact it is a reference to The Extasie, a poem by John Donne, the best-known poet of the group.
(Images © Tumim & Prendergast)
Using imaginative and unusual metaphors the poems were designed to be complex and challenging. By using conceit; that is bringing together startling ideas and objects, they looked to jolt the reader from his complacency. Donne’s lovers are like gold stretched to gold leaf when they are apart; for Andrew Marvell, a drop of dew symbolizes the human soul.
The conceit in T&P’s EXTASIE concerns the wrappers – yoking together this almost unattainable combination of sweet wrappers in embroidered form. Wrappers are disposable and mass-produced, but these imitation wrappers are hand-stitched one-offs - tricky and time-consuming to create. Mounted on the gallery wall we are to consider them differently from throw-away wrappers. Everyday paraphernalia fascinates T&P and here wrappers are given a new role.
The title “metaphysical” was an insult – like many innovative new styles (gothic, fauves) it attracted criticism. This poetry was too difficult and divorced; “metaphysical” alluded to the medieval philosophers whose hair-splitting debates seemed superfluous to real life. But many were drawn to the unusual and intellectual nature of the poetry.
In this installation, the word “Extasie” has other meanings.
Sweets make us happy. “Extasie” is linked to ecstasy and joy.
Taking things up a notch, the sugar-rush high is drug-like. This out of body experience that named the drug “Ecstasy” is something to look at further in relation to John Donne’s poem The Extasie.
The metaphysical poets were hung up on certain themes: love (in particular mutual love), sex and death. Donne is described as the greatest of English love poets - The Extasie is his discourse on the ecstasy of love. His revelation is that true love is a union of souls. This pure higher love also pertains to religion and the ecstasy of the saints. The levels of meaning exhibited by this word are complicated – basic joy to higher spiritual love. It must also raise questions about what brings us to spiritual ecstasy.
An emotional edge, like passion or despair, is characteristic of metaphysical poetry. This was the era of great theatre, Shakespeare and the soliloquy. As well as love T&Ps artwork brings in other emotions. The exuberant joyful colours of EXTASIE leap out from a white wall. The artists like to employ a degree of beauty and allure, and Extasie is also a verb form of extasiar which means to delight or to captivate in Spanish. But negative emotions are also at work; most people today correlate sweets with guilt. Obesity and diabetes is on the rise and sugar is the curse of the Western World.
Metaphysical poetry drew on modernity and aspects of its time. Observers of the day describe a slide towards the debauchery we associate with the Restoration court. From the harlots in taffeta gowns and the thronging ale houses described by Thomas Dekker, to the impending ruin of the nation predicted by Daniel Defoe who wrote, “...we live above ourselves and barter our ready money for trifles.” The 17th century was the era of excess.
Hitting on the metaphysical poets’ preoccupation with physical love, T&P might be bringing in a lustful note, as they did in their work FALL. Sweets are for lovers and arguably more loved by women. Marketers promote the orgasmic bliss and illicitness of sugary treats. This array of wrappers could suggest consumed pleasures. The poetry also brought in important issues such as scientific discovery and overseas colonization. What do we see of our time when we look at EXTASIE? Obesity, coca cola nation, instant gratification, disposable, and a lot of marketing.
The group introduced a colloquialism into their poetry that gave it an immediacy and freshness. T&P are also bringing in today’s language - the language of advertising. The scrunched up wrappers hide the names, but by branding we can still recognize the sweets. EXTASIE itself is big and brash – on the wall like its own advertisement.
T&P’s characteristic touch of black humour is present: there’s a childish delight in sweets – spotting favourites and silly names like Chupa Chups. But surely it’s madness to recreate sweet wrappers. The metaphysical poets pushed at the boundaries of convention, and sometimes the drama overshadowed their craft. You need to be aware of how far T&P are stretching their handicraft skills in this work. And ironically, in being shown images of the work people have sometimes just assumed the replicas to be actual wrappers.
In metaphysical poetry metaphors from everyday life were used to explore higher, abstract thought, often the divine. Metaphor and literary conceit play an interesting role, but all this is subordinate to the argument of the poem. The small connects us to the large, and T&P are doing the same.
I suggested that EXTASIE is in fact a lever. Just as the metaphor and conceit were employed to force its audience into a new state – away from complacency and towards understanding the poem’s argument - I think this is also true of EXTASIE. The lever of course exists only metaphorically speaking.
In the case of T&P’s EXTASIE, there appears to be two arguments: perhaps the most obvious is the warning – our world of powerful branding and instant gratification – does it really evoke Extasie?
Angela Su’s nine works made for the 2010 Sydney Biennale feature erotic verses by Donne. We are asked to consider an enhanced world of beauty that can at any time succumb to illness and mutation. This precarious position is similarly found in EXTASIE - a world of indulgence but at what cost.
Is spiritual ecstasy now brought about by consumption? Is our allegiance to brands stronger than any religious faith? Child-like we clamour for our treats. Interestingly, sweets are used to obtain favour/power – wooing potential lovers, King Louis XIV exchanging sweet boxes with official visitors to his court. Branding of course also functions as a lever – making us buy!
The next argument is one sometimes shared by the metaphysical poets – a call to carpe diem. The wrappers are scrunched up and ready to throw away – the pleasure has gone. This could relate to our own transience; perhaps a vanitas. Just like the narrators in the poetry there is some uncertainty about whether the message is serious or humorous.
Should we beware or just go for it?
END
See more about Tumim & Prendergast and their work at: www.axisweb.org/artist/tumimandprendergast
Art is the means by which life reflects on, transforms and indeed creates its values; human life without it would not properly be human at all.
Antony Gormley