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Time (or Squirrel Capitalism)
Velvet-lined Wooden Box with Bronze Acorns labelled “Sleep and Harvest,” “Eat, Relax, Enjoy,” "Consume,” “Gather and Store.”
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Humans, for the most part, rarely think of the lived experience ofanimal-people. This device is meant to show how squirrel-people experience the seasons, using acorns as a passage of time and as a marker of their activities. It illustrates the ways that time is
utilized by both humans and squirrel-people to acquire and store goods for both the present and the future. For squirrel-people, stored acorns represent future security and health – which is in many ways equivalent to the human concept of wealth. The presentation of the device appeals to the human ideas of wealth and luxury. The concept of a squirrel-person feeling at ease through the winter because they have worked hard and provided well for themselves is a concept that human beings can understand and feel as a sense of being kindred. Nature and Capitalism are intertwined in their drive for survival.
Times Ten
The bowl overflowing with healthy acorns is connected to the cache of acorns banked in the paper bags, while the small wood bowl contains only acorn caps and a squirrel skull.
During mast years, oak trees produce an enormous number of acorns. Faced with abundance, squirrels produce a large number of young. The next year brings a smaller harvest -only 25% of squirrels survive.
The acorn is a form of wealth, guaranteeing the continuation of future generations. Both humans and squirrel-people hoard as much as possible to provide for future security.
The overflowing bowl represents wealth for the squirrel-people but it is without value for humans, just as human wealth is without value to squirrel-people. Capitalism and Nature are both systems in which individuals must find a way to survive.