In Issue 24 we tackle CONSUMPTION, to consume or be consumed.
The word “consumption” first appeared in the 14th century to describe any potentially fatal wasting disease – that is, any condition that “consumed” the body. But over time it came to apply more specifically to tuberculosis which killed many… Since then, consumption has become a theory for economic activity, the food chain, and culture in general, we are all consumers… not just of food, but of ideas, of politics, subliminal messaging, ideology, religion… One artist that springs to mind that reacts against consumption is Banksy, and his graffiti art. There is no elitism or high admission prices to see his work or any other form of graffiti, it is art in every sense of the word, it is created, sends a message, or raises issues, the only people who don’t like it are those that can’t make profit from it or dislike the truths it is saying.
But what have our artists created to respond to the theme? As always we have been surprised at the viewpoints, creativity and perspective of the submissions. So sit back and fill your boots with their take on the theme.
Artist name: ebeck
Instagram: @starflight.dk
Title: Conscience
Description: I`m so sorry dear cow, pig, horse, chicken, game, …, salmon, cod, ..., worm, beetle, …., salad, carrot, potato, … , but I`m hungry.
Artist name: Paul Blenkhorn
Instagram: @sensoryarthouse
Title: We can #5, Size: 40 " x 26.7"
Description: This is a digital collage of the world submerged by consumption. The work starts with a manipulated imaged from NASA of the world at night. This has been combined with many different manipulations of a found image of a crushed cola can as a metaphor for the consumption which is engulfing our planet,
Artist name: Sam Sherborne
Instagram: @samsherborne
Description: Sometimes I don't need more, and I know it, but I still pursue it nevertheless.
Artist name: Milly Aburrow
Instagram: @portfolio.milly
Description: 'We are all a Participant', is a photograph taken back in October, in Sainsbury's, 2020. Focusing on my own consumption in a documentation format, to also destigmatise the irony of responding to consumerism, with negative connotations, yet consuming and buying as normal, yourself. Within this self-portrait you learn a lot about my character, through the act of shopping - linking to the portrayal that consumerism creates an identity. Advertising, the one device that drives this notion, I wanted to display within the image itself, with all the bold, saturated colours - creating an appealing image, creating interest.
Artist name: Susan Plover
Instagram: @susanplover7639
Description: Consumption followed by a question mark is the question every medical professional now asks. Your weight is analysed for excess pounds, your daily toll of cigarettes and your intake of alcohol is often a moment to lie.
This piece reflects by its title, "Through a Glass Darkly," how consumption can affect our reality.
Artist name: Helen Wood
Instagram: @helen_m_wood
Description: Silver stairs is a slippery, light weight and reflective 'shape' made from inverted crisp bags, measuring 189cm by 141cm. As a life long consumer and as part of my practice, I am incrementally and obsessively collecting domestic waste: butter wrappers, plastic punnets, milk containers, fish tins and food packaging, on a mission to create 'pieces'. The materials themselves dictate ways of working and require problem solving on the job. My main issue was with joining the bags together in a small studio.
Artist name: Jaz Bartlett
Instagram: @jazparis_art
Description: Consumption is different throughout cultures, particularly with food and cuisine. The way we think about food, cook food and consume it is celebrated differently depending on things such as culture, tradition and lifestyle. Lately I’ve been thinking about this combination of Asian culture and cuisine along with British food culture, reflecting upon differences in culture between myself and my partner.
For us Brits, fish and chips is a staple takeaway tradition, something that we consume amongst the sight of the seafront and a dish that has become an icon of British culture. Within Asian culture however, fish is used within a wide variety of dishes, but unlike us, they cook and consume different parts of the body of the fish, particularly the head which is popular within Asian miso soup dishes. Fish with Chips aims to combine these two cultural dishes to become one, where the head of the fish becomes a strange monument accompanied by the chips, to create a sort of mocking “gourmet takeaway” meal combining Asian and British cuisine.
Artist name: Shane Wimbledon
Instagram: @paperprison_
Description: The lab rat #01- this piece was made in the response to the forced over consumption of medication showing the process recovery and the cog in a machine like feel to it gives the individual.
Artist name: Adam King
Instagram: @adamk652
Description: These collages aim to transform photographic reference from charity shops. Low-fi and discarded stuff is reconfigured and built up into ambiguous forms and layered to create the illusion of classical space. Consumerist dreams come back to haunt in environments that may evoke edge-of-dystopian cityscapes and corrupted pastorals
Artist name: THE DnA FACTORY MRSS
Instagram: @thednafactorymrss
Description: The DnA FACTORY MRSS is exploring the implications that none of us can escape the corporate eye,. It follows us and exerts its will from the cradle to the grave. This is a game in which we are all captive, for some with eager complicity, certainly to which we are exposed, without being party to the complete set of rules. How we play the game ‘though, is entirely another matter…
THE CONSUMER GAME [V.15-BLOCK] - The trainers contain the sculpted faces of two ‘babies’ with a nought over one eye and a cross over the other, emphasising the ‘game’. These ‘babies’ represent the everyman, all of us, swaddled and coerced by the corporate surround [the trainer hereby acting as an emblem for the all-encompassing nature of this world.
Artist name: Lorrain Mailer
Instagram: @lorrainmailer
Description: The pinnacle of societal consumption, Amazon boxes have been sealed, wrapped and extracted to leave translucent plastic husks. They offer a suggestion of the inter-dependency between powerful multinational corporations, with their material exploitation and their compliant market.
Artist name: Saskia H Nislow
Instagram: @dirtbagsappho
Description: Title: Teethcup
Whatever is contained within these ceramic teacups passes from mouth to mouth, vessel to vessel, in an endless cycle of consumption and intimacy.
