Patricia London Ante Paris’ work title Kapitalismus und Depression [Capitalism and Depression] sounds, in times when the quarterly reports of public listed companies often seem like allegories of collapse, like a ready formula for the shattered dream of easy money. Along with a period of economic decline, the term ‘depression’ also describes a state of downheartedness. While a depression phase in a human being is often accompanied by a lack of recognition, companies caught up in an economic regression suffer a shortage of incoming orders and payments. The negative balance sheet corresponds to the pain of the depressive person.
The women cowering on the floor in London Ante Paris’ four-part cycle of drawings symbolize both meanings of the term. Whether these are sacked fund managers or small-time shareholders who have been cheated out of their savings remains a matter of speculation. At any rate the women disprove the old cliché about the ‘soullessness’ of the economy in as far as here there is not only crisis but also sentiments that go with it.
