How we define consumerism? What is consumerism?
Consumerism is the economic engine of capitalist countries. It's a way that government using to force people to buy things and to keep the economic sustainable. Adverts everywhere, on tv, buildings and your phone, you cannot avoid them. It's kind of like a collective brainwashing of the people. And they don't care about the sustainability of the whole human environment and the situation of our earth. The only thing they care about is money!
The thing is most people do believe this is a right way to value their life and chasing it. They do believe buying things is the only way can value their works, identity and social position.
And how artists use their creative languages to response this social phenomenon? Are they being sarcasm? Are they trying to wake people up to stop chasing the meaningless consumption? Can people truly understand?
I would like to introduce two artists' works and hope both of us will understand more about this topic.
Tamara Kostianovsky
Between Wounds and Folds
I would like to name them Romantic Slaughter. I think the artist created this group of installation art means to let people think about the nonstop shopping desire of the whole society. She means to warn us, if we won't stop or improve our consumption concept then there will be an unimaginable consequence waiting us.
I really like how she represents the flesh and the blood. The fabric stitching together and added leaves, flowers. She made the blood bodies are not scary anymore. They look romantic. The way how she created the forms making a strong contrast with the fact.
Rachel Perry Welty
Lost in My Life
Photography
Actually, this is a group of photographic self-portraits, however, you barely could find the artist herself. She is hiding herself under a big mount of shopping wastes. I love her work is because of it's so straight. I could understand what she is talking about by the first second when I saw the images. She literally just says, we are losing in the stupid consumption concepts. We are completely lost. The way how she arranged all the objects has a strong visual impact. Basically, our life is chaos.
During the research of this topic, I feel like the important of art exist on the world. Artists are speaking loudly and trying hard to wake people up. The thing is how many people could understand our languages? How many people are willing to change?
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