John Barker
b. 1948, London, UK. Lives in Vienna, Austria and London, UK
John Barker, has written extensively on political economy for over forty years, as well as writing fiction and a memoir. A partial archive of this work can be found at www.theharrier.net. Barker and Doujak collaborate on various projects.
CONTRIBUTIONS
Ines Doujak / John Barker
Economies of Desperation, 2018
Carpet, self-adhesive vinyl sticker
Merging the shapes of a cell nucleus, the internal structure of the Earth and of brain cells, this carpet reads like an encyclopaedia and cosmology of the current routes, logics and infrastructures of death politics ranging from drug to organ trafficking, from labour exploitation to war, from the deadly rejection of refugees to the destruction of the planet. This dystopian world is inhabited by miraculous beings in-between the human, the animal and the botanical.
RELATED EVENT
Ines Doujak / John Barker
Masterless Voices, 2014 (video, 30’)
Single screening during Introduction Days
Masterless Voices is a musical based on the themes of carnival, utopia, and rebellion. It begins with a singing mountain. Once, European explorers climbed the Andes on the backs of indigenous carriers. Fed up with the exploitation of its resources, the mountain dons a skirt and sets out for carnival. Masterless Voices sing their unforgiving songs in the dark, sparks fly, and working women tell us that they are not dressed for conquering. A shameless investigator– sometimes naked and sometimes dressed in camouflage – goes out and about among the carnival masses in Bolivia and finds herself with a group of Brazilian Baile Funk dancers. She does not regret anything.
RELATED PLATFORMS
Exhibition