Zentralgestirne (…des letzten Menschen) Pt.II/V

film-photograph on baryte print

60x40cm

Edition 05+03AP

2022

„ suddenly the three mock suns united in one, and plunged into the sea. A few seconds afterwards, a deafening watery sound came up with awful peal from the spot where they had disappeared. (…) it appeared as if suddenly the motion of earth was revealed to us–as if no longer we were ruled by ancient laws, but were turned adrift in an unknown region of space. Many cried aloud, that these were no meteors, but globes of burning matter, which had set fire to the earth, and caused the vast cauldron at our feet to bubble up with its measureless waves.“

(Mary Shelley The Last Man 1826 p. 487)

The body of work „Zentralgestirne“  is a photographic reflection of Mary Shelleys novel „The last man“ which was released in 1826 representing late romanticism while at the same time pioneering apocalyptic science-fiction. The story of Verney as last living human being on an earth shaken by plagues and natural catastrophes can also be interpreted as literary anticipation of current thought models regarding posthumanity. In midst the description of rising apocalypse as result of a gigantic mesh of nonhuman rejections lies the general questionning of human sovereignty. The motif of collective loss of human control is central to the three part novel and uncovers the absurdity of romantic discourses and conceptions of dominating nature in the early 19^th century. While in the scenery above Verney as a human spectator is watching three sunlike meteors from top of the dover cliffs the series „Zentralgestirne“ is multiplying the sun itself.

On the one hand the photographic result of multiple central stars at the sky seemingly accompanying each other in total equality and harmony is mimicking this specific section quoted above. On the other hand it can be seen as a demonstration of alternative thinking apart from what is humanly imaginable. Decomposing the one and only reality of a central and often godlike described star in our solar system can also lead to reevaluating the concept of humanity as one and only force dominating on a planetary scale. In the multiplicity of the three central stars lies a symbol of equality, cooperation and interrelation in the sense of for example polytheistic religion. This way „Zentralgestirne“ takes Shelleys Last man and transformes him into becoming the last man as representative of a human self image which in the 21. century seems to be more and more outdated.