Anthroposaic, 2007

The first impression of Anthroprosaic by Florian Göttke (1965, Germany) is that of a humorously playful work. However, closer reading reveals critical undertones. Anthroprosaic – a linguistic contraction of ‘anthro’ meaning an animal with human-like features and ‘prosaic’ meaning commonplace – is a series of twelve small bronze sculptures of apelike beings. The band of apes has colonized an abandoned high-rise building where they engage with a number of decidedly lugubrious remnants of human society: a pistol, the head of Saddam Hussein and masks of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden. With this work, Göttke reminds and warns us of how closely our own power struggles resemble those of apes: oftentimes devoid of reason and driven by primal urges.