“Insatiable / Surface”

Abstract

The thesis exhibition. Insatiable / Surface. was an installation in two parts that addressed the issues of consumption and depletion. By exhibiting this work I place myself into a broader arena of artists whose work also references consumerism; Andy Warhol and other pop artists through recent artists such as Karen Snouffer whose work focuses on ordinary consumer items and portrays them as totemic or iconographic. Through their work many artists refer to consumerism and the social consequences of it but very few, it seems, make the connection between consumerism and the consequent natural resource depletion. Making art about depletion may seem hypocritical. I am aware that the material used to make this work, and most ceramic work, is nonrenewable and contributes negatively to resource depletion. To acknowledge this I use the word --We", instead of the word "you". It is hypocritical and I am also to blame but I feel it is nonetheless important to bring up these issues by visual means. The installation itself occupied two separate spaces. One of the spaces will be referred to as the arm side (plate I), and the other the sphere side (plate 2). The two sides might appear as disparate but the concept behind each side is very much related and the color usage on each side is very similar. Primary pieces on both sides make reference to the human body as the consumer.