Henri Papin (Meijers & Walsh)

#inreceiptofstolengoods

#henripapin in a #nonlinear #speculativefiction project which has been running for fifteen years by artists #mishmeijers and #trickywalsh

#henri_papin has lived in a world defined through #museum aesthetics; the #collecting #taxonomy which #appropriates objects and ephemera into a particular #hierarchy

It has been #geological in both a #material and #psychological sense, and about #collecting in a #voyeuristic and #thievery sense

#time is a flexible thing, and the project, now loosened from the constraints of #history is allowing a sort of #slippage or #unpeeling of the character and their relationship to the world.

#henripapin, the #pseudonym and the #adoptedpersona has #stolen the #essence of things stolen by: #nhmla #nhmlondon #n.h.m.newyork #mineralotech #australianmuseum #museodegeologiaunam #lordhowemuseum
#wchczeehan #galley_museum

#inreceiptofstolengoods

#henripapin began with a #museum display although that was perhaps not immediately clear, because the #objects collected retained a #significance beyond their immediate relationship to each other.

And sometimes they #collected things that were not objects at all. #Gestures, #conversations, #notes, #bodilysamples, #confessions, and much more.

#henri_papin always held a soft spot for #naturalhistorymuseums and particularly #mineralcollections within these for their #diverse and #magical #architectures

There is something which, on every #scale allows a kind of #projection of the self into that idea of #deeptime. This is part of the #speculation – if you revoke this #manmade construct of time, what else might you be able to #dissemble.

#mishmeijers #trickywalsh
#nhmla #nhmlondon #n.h.m.newyork #mineralotech #australianmuseum
#museodegeologiaunam #lordhowemuseum
#wchczeehan #galley_museum
#NaturalHistoryMuseumLondon
#MNHN #SAmuseum #mfnberlin #MuseumfürNaturkundeBerlin
#goteborgsnaturhistoriskamuseum
#NaturalHistoryMuseumofVenice

#inreceiptofstolengoods

#henripapin is staring into the #glasseyes of an #extinctspecies

#henri_papin has been travelling across #continents (when that was a thing) and #payingrespects to the #remains of things. In this dozen or so rooms are tens of thousands of creatures that would never have #inhabited the same space if we had not #forced them to.

They, even though they are also a collector, sometimes wonders at the #openness of the #crime. How after all, can one #own something that was #neverforsale.

You can get away with a lot in the name of science and education. Even when it hasn’t been #science or #education for a long time.
You can get away with a lot more in the name of #entertainment.

#mishmeijers #trickywalsh also saw the #diaspora of the #dead in the rooms of:

#nhmla #nhmlondon #n.h.m.newyork #australianmuseum
#lordhowemuseum
#NaturalHistoryMuseumLondon
#MNHN #SAmuseum #mfnberlin #MuseumfürNaturkundeBerlin
#goteborgsnaturhistoriskamuseu

m
#NaturalHistoryMuseumofVenice​

#inreceiptofstolengoods
#henripapin wonders if it is shinier, then is it cleaner?

They move away from the #organic and into the #mechanical, eventually into the #electronic and then the #digital and wait patiently for us to realise the #nextmove.

These room are equally full. Instead of animals with their dramatic poses of prey and predator (to which we remain #curious photo-taking #spectators, as if we are somehow removed from this scenario) we find #objects which start to imply life beyond #survival.

This is perhaps the point that the #commodification of #desire really goes into overdrive. We have begun to #augment life and these rooms show the many and varied ways we have done that.

The thing with #augmentation is this oppressive undercurrent of #homogeneity. We are trying to make sure that everyone (not everyone, but let’s #pretend for a minute) has the same level of access, the same #rights and #privileges and we have hidden the side-effects of #technologicaladvancement reasonably well, unless you lift up a corner of the rug.

But why look under the rug when you can look up at the #stars?

#henri_papin looked at the stars, (and in the back rooms, and yes, under the carpets) in these places:

#miraikan #museedesartsetmetiers
#ri_science #instituthenripoincare #londonsciencemuseum

#inreceiptofstolengoods
#intermission
#timetoalludetotheideaofcomingclean
#hideitinplainsight
#boyer #norskeskog #henripapin #henri_papin #mishmeijers #trickywalsh #thievery #assimilation #thecollector #nonlinear #pseudonym #slippage #posttime #speculativefiction

#inreceiptofstolengoods

Henri Papin is obsessed it is true. I guess it is hard to comprehend a species that so openly
works against their better interests.

One that fluctuates between the #coma and the #paroxysm One that birthed Nikola Tesla who gave his inventions for free for the betterment of people and this idiot who uses your information to rig elections.

Things tend to start out with the best of intentions but we are a species that only really wants those for an inflated minority. Perhaps it is the pack mentality talking, I’m not sure. But they avoid packs for a reason, however compelling they may be from a distance.

@henri_papin is pretty over it.
mishmeijers and trickywalsh agree.

The things in these rooms were made by people. They signify that first stage of invention, the initial brilliant spark of a question made manifest.

What they don’t show is how capitalism takes that spark, IPR’s it, cuts all the corners, exploits countries that are “less developed” by forcing them to take the environmental and health risks, and then saturates the world with a diluted forest fire of a product that will inevitable by shipped back to those “less developed” countries in three years (likely much less) to be buried in increasingly toxic landfills.

If you didn’t laugh, you’d buy.

#museedesartsetmetiers
#ri_science #instituthenripoincare #londonsciencemuseum

#inreceiptofstolengoods

Henri Papin is definitely part of the problem.

Henri Papin has worn the cloak of privilege knowingly. There are reasons, but that’s not really a reason, if you get me.

#mishmeijers and #trickywalsh are curious to know what will happen next. When the cloak dissolves, when there is a degree more clarity to the situation.

It’s an exciting thing, possibility. New rules, even, can be exciting if you’re a mutable kind of person.

The things that are shown here are shown to acknowledge some of the problematic sources of material which have determined directions in the project. They are, at the same time, genuinely beautiful things trying to be good-natured. Things in themselves are not really the problem.

The compulsion that we collectively share, this insatiable need for the next thing, or the thing that they have that I don’t have, or the things that Will Make My Life Better or Easier or etc etc etc is definitely a large part of the problem.

And while the solution is not burning it all down it is definitely a tempting concept. At least for a fictional character in a largely fictional world anyway.