SUB DROP

In their daily struggle for survival, modern humans often claim dominance over an environment that once dominated them. This arrogant stance, that extols rationality and power, has led to well-known destructive and devastating consequences. However, every effort to escape nature’s constraints makes one more confined within them. The phrase “domination of nature” thus carries a double meaning: it not only signifies humans taking control of nature but also nature’s dominion over us. Nature kicks right back in and makes culture, science and technology subject to its own laws: decay, growth, sedimentation and flooding occur in their cycles.

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Playing with fetishist aesthetics, Andrey Shental’s solo exhibition Sub Drop shifts focus from the technical domain to ecosexuality. It stages human–nonhuman relationships as a dynamic power play that mirrors how the notion of the sublime landscape was traditionally described in western philosophy. In the competition of capacities, such as between the wide, storm-raged ocean and the insignificant observer, the might of reason was nevertheless thought to triumph over natural forces. But what if we reverse this dynamic and see Homo sapiens sapiens as a mere drop in the dark and raging water? By placing humans in a submissive (sub) role and natural phenomena in a dominant (dom) one, can we overcome hubris and potentially embrace a more modest position in the world?

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The exhibition was MINI FE-STIVAL OF FLAM-ING BEHA-VIOUR at KuLe e.V., Berlin, July 5-18, curated by groupsandindividuals

poster design: Nikita Novikov

sound design: Alexander Pustinsky

tattoo on bark by: Enaitz Greaney

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