Video Screening: The Accumulation of Capital, an anti-critique

Michael Waugh has deep roots in Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts. This video, shot in his family’s farmhouse, explores those roots – editing together three months of documentary footage in which the artist sorts through objects that his family has accumulated over the last 250 years.

 

In the video portion of this work, we see something of the emotional weight that accumulates along with those objects. However, the audio portion of the work alludes to a different kind of accumulation altogether. The voiceover presents a definition of accumulation in capitalist terms, as understood by 20th century economist (and radical) Rosa Luxemburg.

 

Luxemburg’s economic ideas were rejected by the German communist party, which she helped found. In the voiceover, performed by Tony Award winning actress Blair Brown, we hear Luxemburg’s academic frustration that her book on accumulation was banned by her comrades. The way these frustrations weave together with Waugh’s performance are not clear-cut. The connections veer between metaphor and absurdity – sometimes ironic, sometimes sincere. Again and again, the connection between capitalist exploitation and generational loss seem to build towards something revelatory – only to fall apart.

 

Michael Waugh is best known for his large, calligraphic drawings (currently On view in the Hudson D. Walker Gallery-A). Waugh came to this labor-intensive drawing practice through his work in durational performance art.