The Lunatic Swing

Artist list

Melanie Isverding, Attai Chen, Sungho Cho, Emma Price, Carina Chitsaz-Shoshtary, Laura Deakin

The Lunatic Swing

It would be very easy, because of course “lunatic” comes from “luna”, in other words from the word for the moon, and I could now write about the moon. For example, about the effect it has on sensitive people and the fact that even Aristotle was of the opinion that the full moon was capable of triggering insanity and madness. The reason being that the brain, which of course consists almost entirely of water, must necessarily also be seriously affected by that gravitational force that holds sway over ebb and flow. And at the end of the day, we are all sensitive. I could mention the fact that the Latin word “luna” is derived from the ancient Latin “lux” and even philistines like I am when it comes to Latin know that lux means light, and that what is meant here is a bright, gleaming, cool light. Moreover, from the moonlight with its wan glow I would comment that with its white sheen silver is associated with the moon just like gold is with the sun, copper with Venus, iron with Mars and lead with Saturn, for instance. Here, if not before, I would run into my first difficulties, because, as everybody knows, nowadays, jewelry is no longer made out of metal very often. And so today I would need to look for some other planets with which to associate Perspex, cardboard, polyester mastic, graffiti spray paint or even wood and who knows, perhaps, in distant galaxies, these planets do exist, in the same way that in such places there will doubtless be at least one planet of which a third consists of diamonds. And presumably, with the inadequate means at my disposal, I would not be successful if I tried to look for a rubber planet or a beech wood planet painted blue but would simply go mad or at least be thought of as mad. In this I would, however, be in good company company, because the people exhibiting here unambiguously refer to their own presentation, and as such something that that cannot easily be disassociated from their own being as a ‹Lunatic Swing›, i.e., as something to do with insanity and madness. And is it not slightly suspicious that half of the protagonists took part in the legendary exhibition “Des Wahnsinns Fette Beute – The Fat Booty Of Madness” back in 2008 at Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich? Now that was a crazy exhibition! But since I know them all pretty well, let me elucidate: these six artists are not really crazy, or funny or even “nuts” or not quite right in the head in any other way! Or even moonstruck or moon crazy. Or possibly Mars crazy, then they would be slightly wet behind the ears, but I couldn't find anything about that. But in fact what I have been trying to say all along is the following: people like to think of artists as rather bizarre, peculiar, strange, as, go on let's not beat about the bush, as somewhat crackpot and mad. And sometimes the latter do behave a little bit as if they are. But in fact, and this is, after all, what really matters, we artists are the only truly normal people. Sensitive, yes, and because of this perhaps, but only perhaps, on occasion a touch more moon crazy. And now, I think, it would probably be more important to reflect a little bit about “swing”…

Otto Künzli