consumption portraits

Buying and consuming is embedded into the fabric of our every day lives. Each bag is discarded evidence of a shopping trip, ordinary, mundane and insignificant rubbish. Cumulatively the bags document our consumptive behavior.

I started collecting these discarded bags from my own consumption outings and slowly began to ask those around me to contribute as well. Eventually I began to see patterns and relationships between the mounds of bags. I cut out bits and piece of the bags that were interesting to me. With those bits I created little vignettes that grew into each of the Consumption Portraits in the series.

If the portrait was to belong to the series, I decided that they each needed to be assembled with thread. This self-imposed hurdle (plastic bags are not very forgiving to needle punctures) essentially forced me to treat former waste as something precious and of value. In addition each portrait had one additional rule: all elements must be unified with a similar line quality or color palette. The result is a series of quirky dada-esque narratives of consumptive behavior.

CP#1 Contemplation 2009. 10.5" x 13.5"
CP#1 Contemplation
2009. 10.5″ x 13.5″
CP#2 Power 2009. 10.5" x 13.5"
CP#2 Power
2009. 10.5″ x 13.5″
CP#3 Hills & Valleys 2009. 8" x 10"
CP#3 Hills & Valleys
2009. 8″ x 10″
CP#4 Ecosystem 2010. 11" x 14"
CP#4 Ecosystem
2010. 11″ x 14″
CP#5 Dialogue 2010. 5" x 7"
CP#5 Dialogue
2010. 5″ x 7″
CP#7 Dubai to New York 2010. 7" x 7.5"
CP#7 Dubai to New York
2010. 7″ x 7.5″
CP#8 Chute  2010. 5.5" x 7.5"
CP#8 Chute
2010. 5.5″ x 7.5″
CP#9 Constraints 2010. 8" x 10"
CP#9 Constraints
2010. 8″ x 10″
CP#10 Digestion 2010. 8" x 11"
CP#10 Digestion
2010. 8″ x 11″
CP#11 Side Show 2010. 6.5" x 9.5"
CP#11 Side Show
2010. 6.5″ x 9.5″
CP#12 Great Atlantic Garbage Patch 2010. 8.5" x 9.5"
CP#12 Great Atlantic Garbage Patch
2010. 8.5″ x 9.5″
CP#13 Micro-organisms 2011. 16.5" x 16"
CP#13 Micro-organisms
2011. 16.5″ x 16″
CP#14 Escape 2011. 8" x 9"
CP#14 Escape
2011. 8″ x 9″
CP#15 Epic Narrative 2011. 8" x 8"
CP#15 Epic Narrative
2011. 8″ x 8″
CP#16 Lifeline  2011. 7" x 7"
CP#16 Lifeline
2011. 7″ x 7″