- Venue
- Camden Arts Centre
- Location
- London
Can art really change the world? Bringing to life The French Republican Calendar, Ruth Ewan’s horticultural collaboration is an opportunity to reflect on art’s visionary power; transforming society’s thinking and shaping collective values that inform how we live today. Post-financial crisis, as we debate the real value of art, and as Bob and Roberta Smith stands in the general election; this is surely an important question for us all.
As now, society’s unrest and uncertainty around the time of the French Revolution (1789) was a perfect time for artists; valued for their critical thinking and ability to imagine new ways of being. The French Republican Calendar (the official French calendar from 1793 to 1805) was a poetic attempt to re-structure time and re-see the world; fundamentally changing everyday behaviour while respecting nature’s seasonality and opposing the superiority of church, monarchy and aristocracy.
What if you woke up tomorrow to a 10-hour day and a 10-day week? [see image]
‘We Could Have Been Anything We Wanted To Be’ (2012) takes the tangible to the imaginary – referencing the decimal time structure adopted during the time of The French Republican Calendar.
The French Republican Calendar comprises 12 months of 30 days. Each month is divided into 3 weeks, and each week is 10 days long. The final 5 (or 6) days of the year are festival days, heroically named: Virtue, Talent, Labour, Conviction, Honour and Revolution (leap years only). So, for example, the past couple of weeks are the first 10 days of the month of Wind (Ventôse):
19 Feb = Coltsfoot
20 Feb = Dogwood
21 Feb = Matthiola
22 Feb = Privet
23 Feb = Billy Goat
24 Feb = Wild Ginger
25 Feb = Italian Buckthorn
26 Feb = Violet
27 Feb = Goat Willow
28 Feb = Spade (each 10th day is represented by a farming tool)
01 Mar = Narcissus
02 Mar = Elm
03 Mar = Common Fumitroy.
As a lapsed botanist, I found the list of names beautifully poetic, evoking carefree memories of country walks.
Entering the gallery, 360 ready-mades (plants, animals and toiled tools) are neatly framed on the floor, as if entering a naturalist’s study or pre-Enlightenment Cabinet of Curiosities. The alive-ness is pleasantly startling. Gurgling water-pumps keep fish-tanks flowing and spring-green buds offer signs of hope against cold grey. The spacious arrangement sees the individual within the harmony of the whole.
Grounding grids (a sieve and harrow) lay portrait – propped up against opposing walls – with back-shadows, while elegant stems (Common Spindle, Poplar, Laurel) guide your gaze skyward. Admiring the reassuring Victorian architecture (originally a library) I was unexpectedly distracted by the odd beauty of broccoli, and then noticed the opportunistic chickweed defiantly co-habiting with the Wood Anemone – the wonder of the Everyday!
Each object is assigned a circular colour-coded number tag that corresponds to an entry in the beautiful-to-hold ‘pocket’ guide, which matches the format (and sense of security) of the London Underground map. Although kids and adults were clearly engaged with identifying the objects, this show is about so much more than academic knowledge and can be accessed on so many different levels. For me, this felt like a leisurely country walk with good friends; reflecting on the familiar with a sense of openness to the new: coming home feeling that everything is going to be OK.
As for changing the world, why not ride the turmoil of our times by selecting a song on ‘A Jukebox of People Trying to Change the World (started in 2003): an ongoing collection of 22,000 politically and socially engaged songs. Or see History is Now at The Hayward Gallery, a show that looks at the recent past as a platform for considering the future. Or essential reading for any socially engaged artist: Boris Groys, On Art Activism, http://www.e-flux.com/journal/on-art-activism, 2014.
