Garden Supplies | Scene 1. - The Great Cabbage, 2017

By Madara Auzenbaha ^{Emerging artist}

207 x 140 cm

€1709

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Seed packages, acrylic on chipboard

The graduation work „Garden Supplies” (“Dārza apgāds”) is a depiction of the correlation of the intended, the objective reality and the creation of myth. It is the contemporary post-truth and alternative fact era`s story of how it is possible to avoid the responsibility over the reality with creation of a system of superstition and myth. The narrative is constructed of metaphorical characters and is readable by translating the symbolic meanings of the characters and their playful mutual combinations and rhythms. The main source of inspiration is a subjective structure of a certain agrochemist’s world view, which is so self-sufficient that there is no space left for an objective explanation of causality. The agrochemist is a real living person. “Garden Supplies” was a real family business in the mid 90ties ran by agrochemist.

THE STORY

Once upon a not-very-long time ago, an agrochemist with a brilliant, eager mind and an otherwise great potential had an idea to become his country’s greatest seed merchant. He dreamed of great cabbage*, beautiful gardens and happy, rich people in the gardens.

The agrochemist began to fulfill his dream with tremendous enthusiasm. A company with limited liability and a poetic name Garden Supplies (DĀRZA APGĀDS) ** was founded.

To himself and to the world, the agrochemist promised eternal love, prosperity and at least one white Mercedes-Benz limousine to anyone who he happened to meet on his way. His eloquence and persuasiveness was unmatched. The world believed in him, looked at him with eyes full of delight, listened to him with open mouths; the cabbage rolled to the right and to the left, and the land flourished. A neighboring gypsy, out of respect to the agrochemist, sold him his last horse for just a few coins. Although some say that the horse would have been under a spell of black magic.

Who knows what happened to the gypsy’s horse, but black cats started crossing the agrochemist`s path. At first, he knocked three times on a tree, spat over the left shoulder, held the button of his trousers*** and marched forward, head held high. But quite soon he had to take up the heavy weaponry. He hit the black ghosts at first with headed cabbages, then with Savoy cabbages and at last even with Brussels sprouts.

No luck. The black cats, little buggers, haven’t retreated to this day. But the agrochemist doesn’t give up, either. He keeps throwing those cabbages at his ghosts over and over again, so that the earth trembles. Apparently, the key is to get rid of the she-cats. But if the situation gets out of control, Dalmatian chrysanthemum and marsh tea extracts, and a good deal of turpentine might help.

* Cabbage is a metaphor for money in various languages. In the work a symbol for ideas that theoretically should bring about happiness and prosperity.
** The agrochemist is a real living person. Garden Supplies was a real family business in the mid 90ties ran by agrochemist.
*** Superstitious actions that should be undertaken when encountering black cats to avoid ill luck. In the work black cat is a symbol of malignant forces that are at fault for failures.

Other works from the series: