I aim to investigate how the cross over between two cultural scales; international mass consumerism and local consumerism work, creating underlying or forgotten truths in which New Zealand embodies, yet does not expose. In other words, how are some of the darker aspects of our mass society constructed, circulated and finally, hidden. It seems that New Zealand, like many other small, young countries, is constantly in tension with the larger world surrounding. There is a drive to keep up, being pulled back by the hope of retaining our uniqueness and individuality. Is this tension the cause and effect of things in which the majority of our population brush under the carpet and choose not to think about? What happens when they are brought out and talked about without pointing a finger and blaming? There are three levels of local underlying truths, brought about or influenced by an international mass consumer culture I intend to investigate, document and scrutinise. They will be looked at as:
1. The Forgotten – borrowed and appropriated racism
2. Personal Experience – random acts of violence
3. The Reported – recreational drug trade
These three areas will make up a body of work which I aim to communicate narrative, quantification, structuring and semiotics to talk about notions of ‘human problems’ within our local consumer society.
Have you read Human Problems by Francis Upritchard? Not sure whether you would be interested but I guess it's a way of presenting and analysing human behaviour and flaws. It can be quite a quick read...may or may not be worth your while.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting that you'd been thinking through these issue and doing a lot of research which seemed to take the form of written articles mostly and some photographs? But then you abstracted some images into these concrete symbols that a viewer might find really engaging for what they are - but possibly won't read the racial and consumerism kind of issues you are thinking about. I think what I'm getting at is how your outcomes might or might not relate back to your research directly, and this discrepancy between your starting point and thought processes (like, where the work has come from) and the viewer's reception might be quite huge. Not that that's a good thing or a bad thing but it's interesting and something that definitely struck me about what you presented to us last week. The drawings you made had slick, finished quality to them too, I wonder how or if you'll develop them more.
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