Catalogue Essay
Jen Mathews: Geo-romanticism.
SOSO.org online exhibition, July 2018.
Jen Mathews invites us to wander with her. She takes us on a tour of her city through places that are familiar to most; a park, a museum, a department store. Using a hand-held phone camera, we see the world through Mathew’s eyes as she navigates these everyday locations, reciting a random collection of quotes found on Pinterest by contemporary philosopher Alain de Botton.
In Geo-Romanticism Mathews conjures the figure of the flâneuse, who wanders the streets observing life as it happens around them: seeking to observe and understand it without intervening or participating. Walter Benjamin described the flâneur or flâneuse as “the essential figure of the modern urban spectator, an amateur detective and investigator of the city.” He goes on to suggest that the flâneur is symptomatic of the alienation of urban capitalism.
Mathews’ watching, mediated through her phone camera, suggests a detached relationship with these physical places. There is a longing to understand or to be part of the observed world, but also to maintain a distance between the individual and the rest of society. It is not uncommon now for us to learn about the world in this detached way, by exploring far-off places through Google Earth or virtually walking through neighbourhoods on Street View. Instead of wandering the streets of Paris like the original flâneurs, we now have a tendency to wander virtual environments to seek inspiration, and to learn more about the world and ourselves.
The video footage in Geo-Romanticism is accompanied by quotes sourced from digital moodboard Pinterest. Mathews aims to unsettle the armchair wisdom of pop philosopher Alain de Botton, whose popularity might be attributed to a desire for an easily consumable explanation of contemporary anxieties. Mathews is interested in the proliferation of the language of self-improvement and aspiration in consumer culture, presenting these quotes with a dash of irony.
Just as the places that Mathews physically wanders could be anywhere in the world, so too these inspirational quotes suggest a flattening or globalisation of culture and experience. There is a sense of perpetual longing that permeates Mathews’ documentation of public space. It is in these moments that Geo-Romanticism is most effective.