Transmutations, 2011
by Johan Rosenmunthe
64 pages, 59 colour & b/w pictures
Wooden box, individually crafted
Edition of 100, numbered & signed
1. edition 2011, ISBN 978-87-994373-0-6
Published by Vandret Publications
Preview: Video
What is a transmutation? It’s described as a sudden change from one generation to the next, that is large in comparison with the usual variation of an organism. The theory on the transmutation of species was proposed by Jean-Babtiste Lamarck in 1809. He believed that an innate life force, which he sometimes described as a nervous fluid, drove species to become more complex over time. This fluid is shared between all living organisms, which raises the question: What is essentially human, what do we share with the other species and what comes to us as a primordial urge. Does animals have the same urges or are they mutating towards a more sophisticated way of life. Is Homo sapiens the goal or just another transmutation?
Rosenmunthes pictures can be seen as visual transmutations – bastards of light and interference. They are jumps in style and expression, and evidence of a personal investigation.
'Transmutations’ is a book project with a new look at the dialectical relationship between culture and nature. A study of bestial connotations of human gestures and poses, and it questions how much originates from the animal in us. It is a look into the attitude of the young generations and the relationship between staging and substance. The project includes photographs of stuffed animals photographed at the Museum of Natural History in New York. Their postures are carefully orchestrated by humans.
Common to all pictures are the outside world's expectations. To be the perfect animal or human. To be able to grasp and selectively borrow from other races without being perverted, and at the same time be what we are - humans or animals.
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