Ersatz Strata explores truth through fossilised sludge

ERR reviews Zody Burke and Klara Zetterholm’s exhibition Ersatz Strata, which creates a tense world where prehistoric history, dystopian futures and the present meet. The exhibition was on display at the Temnikova and Kasela gallery until August 15.

The works bring together seemingly incompatible fields of meaning in a playful negotiation. Through images of oil and fossil fuels, the exhibition connects the prehistoric past with a dystopian future, presenting each work as a strange artefact from another era and a nightmarish distortion of the present.

Dark, underground or chthonic forces dominate the exhibition, alongside a playful flirtation with science fiction and references to popular culture. Materials resembling fossilised sludge suggest layers of history, but also extinction, capitalism and abjection.

Burke’s graphic prints and Zetterholm’s reliefs hang on the gallery’s white walls. A small vehicle regularly travels along miniature rails across one wall, forming part of a larger work in the adjoining room. Two humanoid mannequins created by Zetterholm sit in the distance, slightly resembling characters from Planet of the Apes. They, too, appear to come from a post-apocalyptic future.

Above the entrance to the next room hangs an object by Zetterholm resembling a giant fossil from deep underground. It could be an imagined brick made from molluscs, a fragment of underwater city architecture or something entirely inconceivable.

The room also contains another part of Burke’s intricate installation. The small vehicle travelling between the cartoon-like graphic prints in the previous room is part of a miniature roller coaster built among frightening little cliffs. Seen through narrowed eyes, the steep rocks slightly resemble Godzilla’s silhouette. At the base of the installation, a miniature Vanapagan works on building a sauna inside the tiny mountains and waits for his time.

Across from the installation is a Giger-like relief by the artist, with references to both Vana Toomas and the Ülemiste elder. Nearby stand busts of two mysterious figures. One wears a cowboy hat and has a long false nose reminiscent of Pinocchio, while the other slightly resembles a wind-up doll from the cult film Blade Runner.

Together, these creatures point to another theme that all the works engage with: the question of truth. The exhibition’s untranslated title offers its first clue, particularly the word Ersatz, which means a cheap substitute, an imitation or something artificial and not fully equivalent.

Fakes have traditionally been contrasted with originals and considered inferior. The original is regarded as real and authentic, and therefore somehow inherently better than the imitation. A fake, especially one that is immediately recognisable as a copy, is often treated as a mark of bad taste.

Pinocchio’s nose grows when he lies, suggesting that there is a so-called real state of affairs to which linguistic statements either correspond or do not.