Air

Just one small section of this full caption traces disparate chapters in contemporary world politics — French populism, Lebanon’s financial crisis and the Hong Kong independence movement. Continue reading and certain patterns emerge from this seemingly disjointed list. For instance, most of the images of Ukrainian resistance date from 2014 to 2021, in the wake of the 2014 Russian incursion into Crimea and the Donbas, anticipating the latest invasion of 2022. Wyman reveals that the signs of future conflict are often present before they erupt: trapped beneath the layers of 24-hour media coverage. Plume 20 is perhaps what American Marxist philosopher Fredric Jameson imagined in 1984 when he speculated on political art in an age of proliferating media images. Jameson called for a practice of ‘cognitive mapping’ that tracked the economic and political agents concealed within the everyday montage of news, advertising and entertainment. In this way, he hoped art would provide some sense of historical footing within the ‘perpetual present’ of compounding images. 1 Wyman offers us possible pathways through the world’s discord — her collage and captions suggesting the coordinates of a ‘Jamesonian’ map. The implied connections of these smoke fragments can lead us to many hypotheses. Do these episodes all lead back to a boom-and-bust global economy or perhaps the returning threat of authoritarian leaders? Do they speak of the ghosts of European imperialism or are they spectres of new power relations borne by technologies of surveillance? Globalism, postcolonialism, neoliberalism, capitalism — in seeking answers, a long string of ‘isms’ come to mind. While Jemima Wyman doesn’t propose any definitive conclusions, her patchwork cloud suggests that each incident forms part of a larger system, albeit one that seems indeterminate — foggy, disorienting, all-encompassing. SR The artist dedicates this work to the memory of Mark Webb (1957–2022). 1 Fredric Jameson, ‘Postmodernism, or The cultural logic of late capitalism’, New Left Review , no.146, July–August 1984, p.92. Jemima Wyman / Plume 20 (details) 2022 173 172 Invisible Invisible