Christian Gonzenbach

Gherkins Natural History

Gherkins Natural History, 2005

Video animation

6'40"

In this video, the setting is comically unsettling. Familiar gherkins are crammed together in baths of murky green pickle water like cadavers or penises in clear glass containers, or in plastic takeout containers invoking the image of babies in incubators . Then there are the standing gherkins that are looking at these preserved cucumbers as if in a museum or a laboratory. A dark humor lurks in this pickle-y dystopian scenario where the salted cucumbers are observing themselves in either prior or post life form.