On January 18, 1884, Dr William Price of Wales famously attempted to cremate his son, as churchgoers coming out of service attacked him for this then sacrilegious act. Following this incident, a trial acquited him and was instrumental in passing a ‘Cremation Act’ that is said to have legitimised cremation. Christ’s entombment is seen as a precursor to his resurrection. Which is why it was considered sacrilegious to cremate.
This is important, because, the following year, 1885, there were three recorded cremations in Britain. In 1968, less than a century after that, over half of all recorded deaths were cremations.
Maggi instant noodles, now synonymous with the lazy teen’s snack, had its origins that same year, 1884, in Switzerland as Julius Maggi, the founder, who is portrayed as a visionary who wanted to make his company’s nutritious products easily available to the common worker began making the world’s first instant soup.
Nestle’s website says that he was a clairvoyant, a person who claims to predict the future. He predicted the rise of the need for quick and pre-packaged food in an increasingly industrialised world where women now had begun to work in factories.
Well, he certainly was right about that!
Zwoop forward a century and a half and we learn that nestle acquired Maggi in 1947 and has had its fair share of infamous publicity with the recent temporary ban in 2015 over high amounts of lead and other ingredients. It had a market share of 90% before the ban and lost over half of the market post-ban. Time change don’t they? Opinions differ between the teens and parents but it all stands on a precarious plate of general laziness.
Topf and Sons, a normal, everyday, family-run company in pre-war Germany was a traditional brewer. Once the Nazi party came to power, they built ovens for cremations in SS controlled Nazi concentration camps and their development of the technology was a highly competitive task. While wearing glasses that ignored the suffering in front of them, the Topf brothers who owned the company, continued to supply and give a moral meaning to their task. As Karen Bartlett writing for the Time magazine puts it,
“It is their very ordinariness that makes them so appalling”.
History is a collection of frames of Lego Worlds being designed and constructed by the previous world. That is why we need to understand the worlds of the past. Precedents are treasure blocks hidden all around in the present. But, to look to and through these blocks is simple contemplation.
Documentation from the previous worlds is a key piece of the contemplation drug. The documents from Topf and Sons dehumanise the millions and talk about the performance and perfection of their machines.
This is where individual accounts come into the picture. Photographs and works of art are very good places to look for accurate accounts. Art has now undergone a fundamental change in outlook intending to capture more of the emotion than a higher emphasis on recreation.
This is an interesting point in this essay to argue that history need not just be collective and global history. A person’s tryst with the world is not to be undermined with reasoning along the lines of how the collective is more important than the individual. Happiness and content-ness are personal pursuits that need to be encouraged. And that only happens when a person feels safe documenting their feelings as discussions or as works of art or music.
Art is oftentimes a personal diary that does not crave recognition but at the same lets out a slow-motion scream for acceptance. There are emotions that a collective feels and embraces through works of art that then becomes the ones we see out in the world. I do not, however, think that this argument applies to art that is commodified as an evergrowing security.
Yes, all my arguments and statements were meant to lead to this final, singular idea.
Sometimes art is personal, sometimes it carries history, it may not be seen under the million-dollar price tag and the hatred that comes with it for Modern Art, but those are true and open expressions of emotion. You may not see it, but just like how Maggi does not seem like much and just like how cremation carries a story that may not always relate to your experience with it, it exists.
You do not need to acknowledge it, but understand it exists as a binocular looking through history for many.
Never in the world would I have imagined Maggie and cremation be together in a statement. 👏👏
An intelligent piece of ART ATtack!! Though provoking read!!