Deities of the Forest introduction

BETTINA CARL
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FORSTGOTTHEITEN
DEITIES OF THE FOREST 2010 - 2012 Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

The occidental imagery of "nature" has

been a reference for many works of mine.

KAUNTRI 1, A LA RECHERCHE or THE

LOCALS are but a few examples, and my

recent series DEITIES OF THE FOREST

continues this line.

The DEITIES OF THE FOREST are about

twigs, moss, foliage, desire, clair-obscur and

a thicket of traditional notions. The concept of

"nature" prevalent today in the West, began

to form with the dawn of modernity roughly

250 years ago. The more the protagonist of

Western civilisation found he could dominate

nature's fateful and unpredictable forces, the

more he started to aestheticise and adore

"nature". Eventually, "nature" provided an

ideal counterpart, the ground on which to

define his status as a subject.

A deity = Gottheit, a goddess or a god, is very

much the Other. Something completely remote,

though beloved and feared, a deity is all desire

visualised.

KAPELLE Nr. 1 CHAPEL #1, charcoal. pastel chalk, watercolour, pencil, collage on paper, 49 cm x 53 cm, 2010

My DEITIES OF THE FOREST are a funny group of idols. Some are hardly to be discerned from their contexts, others explicitly

feature their bodies, resembling Big Foot or the Willendorf Venus. The title alludes to the period style of late 19th century, when

in the arts images of voluptuous yet menacing women became rampant: dubious nymphs, dryads, and sirens acted out what

the male subject of the time strictly denied himself to be, however strongly he might long to have it.

Subjectivity = Innerlichkeit was held near and dear by the Romanticists, yet strangely enough it was located outdoors, in the

landscape, i.e.: in a picture. Although the special German soft spot for woods probably dates back to ancestral wild men, it

only acquired an ideological veneer in the early 19th century. At the time, the scheming of a German national identity required

a distinctive set of myths; national-liberal activists held celebrations in the woods, and Romanticist art was full of firs and oaks.

The nation-to-be's soul-searching included ironic evocations of the soulfull woods and its creatures, too. A literary example of

this is Heinrich Heine's "Romancero", and folk songs like "A Cuckoo Sat Upon A Tree (Auf einem Baum ein Kuckuck sass)"

belong there, too. In this context, the cuckoo and other animals stand for those demanding freedom, as opposed to the hunter

who represents the people's princely oppressors.

Taking on various forms, the rather histrionic cult of larger groups of trees has continued ever since, ranging from the early 20th

century's youth movements, through the Nazis' racist analogies between Wald and Volk, to recent environmentalist campaigns.

Those among the wood worshippers however who stroke a more subversive tone do not seem to have had a similar impact. Some

of the originally satirical songs are still popular today, yet they are known as children's songs only.

BETTINA CARL	HOME	>> deutsch


FORSTGOTTHEITEN DEITIES OF THE FOREST 2010 - 2012	Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13




The occidental imagery of "nature" has been a reference for many works of mine. KAUNTRI 1, A LA RECHERCHE or THE LOCALS are but a few examples, and my recent series DEITIES OF THE FOREST continues this line. The DEITIES OF THE FOREST are about twigs, moss, foliage, desire, clair-obscur and a thicket of traditional notions. The concept of "nature" prevalent today in the West, began to form with the dawn of modernity roughly 250 years ago. The more the protagonist of Western civilisation found he could dominate nature's fateful and unpredictable forces, the more he started to aestheticise and adore "nature". Eventually, "nature" provided an ideal counterpart, the ground on which to define his status as a subject. A deity = Gottheit, a goddess or a god, is very much the Other. Something completely remote, though beloved and feared, a deity is all desire visualised.
	KAPELLE Nr. 1 CHAPEL #1, charcoal. pastel chalk, watercolour, pencil, collage on paper, 49 cm x 53 cm, 2010
My DEITIES OF THE FOREST are a funny group of idols. Some are hardly to be discerned from their contexts, others explicitly feature their bodies, resembling Big Foot or the Willendorf Venus. The title alludes to the period style of late 19th century, when in the arts images of voluptuous yet menacing women became rampant: dubious nymphs, dryads, and sirens acted out what the male subject of the time strictly denied himself to be, however strongly he might long to have it. Subjectivity = Innerlichkeit was held near and dear by the Romanticists, yet strangely enough it was located outdoors, in the landscape, i.e.: in a picture. Although the special German soft spot for woods probably dates back to ancestral wild men, it only acquired an ideological veneer in the early 19th century. At the time, the scheming of a German national identity required a distinctive set of myths; national-liberal activists held celebrations in the woods, and Romanticist art was full of firs and oaks. The nation-to-be's soul-searching included ironic evocations of the soulfull woods and its creatures, too. A literary example of this is Heinrich Heine's "Romancero", and folk songs like "A Cuckoo Sat Upon A Tree (Auf einem Baum ein Kuckuck sass)" belong there, too. In this context, the cuckoo and other animals stand for those demanding freedom, as opposed to the hunter who represents the people's princely oppressors. Taking on various forms, the rather histrionic cult of larger groups of trees has continued ever since, ranging from the early 20th century's youth movements, through the Nazis' racist analogies between Wald and Volk, to recent environmentalist campaigns. Those among the wood worshippers however who stroke a more subversive tone do not seem to have had a similar impact. Some of the originally satirical songs are still popular today, yet they are known as children's songs only.