Based On & Maintained By Illusion

Artist: James Stephen Wright.

Curator: Andrea Domesle, Videocity.

Thanks to cooperation partner: Résidence d’artistes Chalet Erika Beatenberg.

A three part video intervention that takes a Robert Walser-esque walk through Beatenberg and appreciating what has become the ordinary whilst documenting the human & non-human interaction with what is dubbed as “Nature” by humans.

For this video trilogy, the artist took a walk through Beatenberg in the spirit of Robert Walser. The writer appreciates what is commonly referred to as the ordinary. In doing so, he pays attention to the human and non-human interaction with nature – whereby “nature” is to be understood as humans understand it.

The apparent naturalness of nature, which we shape around us and use to explain what it should and should not be, is a funny business and also a business. We all contribute to this. Similar to the question of what is art and what is not, one could conclude that everything is nature. If that is the case, then would everything be ordinary?

The artist’s aim was to capture the ‘beauty and even the divine in all things’, to walk through today's Beatenberg and capture nature. He was not interested in dragons, monks, hermits or UFOs, which cast their veils from the past over Beatenberg. He encountered drones, a person made of baked goods, aeroplanes, rubbish bins painted with nature scenes and many residents cutting grass.