GHOST LOOKING FOR ITS SPIRIT
“Ghost Looking for its Spirit” takes its title from Marx’s essay “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”. Comparing French revolutions of 1789 and 1848, he writes: “Awakening of the dead in those revolutions served the purpose of glorifying the new struggles of finding once more the spirit of revolution, not of making its ghost walk about again.” Through a personal narrative of an immigrant, “Ghost Looking for its Spirit” parses failures and aspirations of communism against the backdrop of American landscape.
The opening shot portrays a worker in blue overalls standing under a grand monument to Karl Marx. It then cuts to the same character pushing a giant steel wool beard through a small town. As the worker passes the ubiquitous Walmart and McDonald’s, the narrator recalls growing up in Soviet Union, and appeals to Marx for answers as to why the socialist utopia failed. The video ends with lingering unanswered questions as the worker sets the giant steel wool beard aflame.
Research & documentation
Karl Marx monument in Chemnitz, Germany
Sculptor Lev Kerbel at work
DDR era postage stamp with Chemnitz as Karl-Marx -Stadt
Studio work in progress
Underlying structure of the sculpture 'Crowd-Pleaser'
Detail of the steel wool sculpture ‘Crowd-Pleaser’
Video stills
