Eric Peter

The project ‘Economy as Intimacy’ aims at reimagining economics through intimacies using poetry as its medium of speculation. At the core stand poems that attempt to read different aspects of late capitalism (zero-hour contracts, debt, competitionism, environmental destruction, etc.) as places for intimacy and connectedness. Isn’t debt something that brings people closer (owing something to someone)? Isn’t a labour contract something of a relation? Isn’t giving discount a form of relation? If we are to overhaul the leitmotiv (capitalist) economics has become, we need to start transforming the way we engage with economics through our public and, most pertinently, private lives. Whereas I had presented the poems crafted under the umbrella of ‘Economy as Intimacy’ in various ways (from lecture performances to a more conventional type of recital), group recitals became of specific interest. Having a group of readers, the reading in itself becomes a type of exchange, of barter between the different accents and loudness of voices. The uttering of words in a group, evolves around intimacy, and it transgresses the voice of the author into something more general. Although less the poem’s subject matter, the act of reading here becomes a materialisation of the concept.

The project ‘Economy as Intimacy’ aims at reimagining economics through intimacies, using poetry as its medium of speculation. At the core stand poems that attempt to read different aspects of late capitalism (zero-hour contracts, debt, competitionism, environmental destruction, etc.) as places for intimacy and connectedness. If we are to overhaul the leitmotiv (capitalist) economics has become, we need to start transforming the way we engage with economics through our public and, most pertinently, private lives. Both economics and poetry weigh heavily on speculation and language. “Bifo” Berardi wrote how money and language are very similar; they are nothing but symbols, yet able to move, persuade and transform things. Politicians' speeches can undermine international trade, and in the Digital Age, words online (e.g. by celebrities) can do equal harm to stock markets. The poems I write are taking up intimate lives under late capitalism as subject matter and setting. But besides this, the applying of specific types of language (Filipinised English words, multiple languages, American or British spelling), equally challenges our thinking of economics and its inequalities. In May 2018, the first volume of poems was published as part of a group exhibition.

Dried fish (i.e. bulad, typical of Filipino food culture) in exchange for words; engaging in conversations through commodity exchange and challenging conventions of the monetary and the capitalist

Employing the educational characteristics of puppetry, ‘Generous Government and the Triad of Sorrows’ questions through play and comedy the hegemonies of socioeconomics on a global scale. Although limited as a form of art to deepen a critical understanding of one’s position, puppet theatre is in the least capable of challenging one’s thinking and acting. The narrative is that of a village meeting between the four characters, discussing the challenging of authority, breaking away from socioeconomic class and privilege(s) through their personal narratives. Characters: Generous Government is a privileged figure who (proclaims) to have the best intentions with fellow citizens, but is a captive to their own desires for more capital. Keeping Distance belongs to the middle class. They are content with their property, their income, their position in society—and profusely hold onto these “rights” (in the words of K.D.). Nearly Pious is a religious figure who deals only according to the holy book, but comes to be faced with a dilemma. Water Market is a poor layman, from a place where Coca-Cola® is cheaper than drinking water and where drinking water is bought at specially designated markets.

ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛ is a collection of jewellery pieces, attempting to subvert the logics of fashion into something less competitionalist and short-lasting. More of small sculptures than what we would expect of jewellery normally, its collections consist of simple and familiar symbols to tap into that particular sentiment of compassion and togetherness which seems to be lost. Since the body serves as the exhibition space for the necklaces, bracelets and other jewellery pieces, the pieces exist in a more intimate world, opposing a scheme of art spaces and publics only. At the same time, it is a parasite in (until now, only smaller) fashion magazines and shows. Each piece is executed in stainless steel and handmade in collaboration with artisan Hanif Bhai from Karachi, one of the city's most skilled repoussé makers.

During the two-day Festival Hongerige Wolf, I initiated the procession entitled 'Aalmoal' (dialect for “all”). The village’s history encompasses three different groups that have their distinctive (his)stories; the Moluccans who were forced to migrate from the Malaku Islands to The Netherlands during the sixties and kept in a camp right beside the village of Hongerige Wolf; the grain farmers, owning enormous pieces of land and property; and third, the farmworkers, who rebelled against arduous labour conditions and united in a communist movement that even today remains a strong force in the municipality. Through a procession of banners depicting the various narratives of segregation and conflict, the remote area's distinct history was again brought to the surface. Led by one of the villagers on a tractor, each of the banner's abstracted image depicts the village’s history. The procession is to be seen from both a macro and a micro perspective: from afar, it evokes the sense of a unified community, but up close, the images remind us of the historical separation.

Different perspectives on the experience of death, life and the unknowing through puppets.