Curatorial Rationale

Throughout my exhibition, I aimed to portray the restrictive nature of consumerism within current-day society, in particular, highlighting the relationship between the modern consumer and the desire for material goods. In order to properly convey this sentiment, the majority of my artworks are centered around balance, symmetry, and grid-like structures, as each represent the entrapped and limited mindset associated with consumerism. As a person who has traveled to countries like Nepal and was able to compare their forms of consumerism to our own, I was deeply motivated to craft my art about how one’s yearning for material goods, regardless of the cultural setting/background, can rid oneself of their own individuality and freedom. 

 

When I was deciding the structure of my exhibition, I thought: what could be better than curating my art in a grid-like structure, similar to how the construction of my artworks were made themself. To convey this regard, I ordered my nine atworks within a 3x3 structure, as each horizontal layer was meant to represent a specific portion of my theme. The intent of doing this was to inform the audience that consumerism cannot just be defined by one aspect, in other words, it is rooted in all of our lives and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. 

 

The purpose of the top horizontal layer was meant to focus on the consumer itself, offering a perspective on what motivates them to pursue material goods. This was divided into three artworks: “The Consumer,” “Divided, Consumer,” and “Industry: Nepal.” Starting with “The Consumer,” I intended on having this piece on the uppermost left side, making it the official start of my exhibition. With this artwork, I hoped to immediately inform the viewer of their self-recognition as a consumer, which would then help them better understand the gravity of the other artworks. Following this was “Divided, Consumer,” where the grid-like division within the middle of the artwork served to highlight the dual-nature of consumerism, one marked with freedom and the other with greed. My intent in having this illustration in the middle was to separate the two artworks beside it, allowing the audience to interpret both sides as differing qualities of consumerism. For “Industry: Nepal,” I tried to emphasize the closed mindset of consumers within foreign countries, based on my experiences traveling abroad. This piece, while not entirely abiding to the balance and symmetry of the other artworks, was intended to bring attention to the similarities between consumers in Nepal and the United States, where they are both blinded by their desire for material wealth and goods. 

 

The middle horizontal layer is a series of photos with the intent of conveying the immorality and unrighteousness associated with consumerism. “PG I,” “PG II” and “PG III,” were all focused on the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, dealing particularly with the aspects of price gouging. The succession of the photos from left to right sought to get the audience to view the layer as a consecutive story ---- a tragic tale of today’s society. “PG I,” displayed the contrast in value between materialistic items (seen with the trophies) and everyday necessities like medical supplies. This was the most conservative photo of the series, as it served as an effective bridge to “PG II.” For this photo, it was captured from the farthest back angle to demonstrate the initial effects of price gouging. The dark and oblique atmosphere of the artwork served to highlight how consumerism inspired a sense of only caring about oneself, deriving people from what makes them human. Lastly “PG III” represented the climax and finale of the series. To maximize the harrowing effect of this image, I captured the photo at a lower angle to allow the audience to envision the piece in a much more dire and hopeless perspective. I aimed to stress how consumerism motivated everyday people to buy out all of the necessary resources and supplies simply to make profit, while others were left to fend for themselves.

 

Ending off with the lower horizontal layer, its primary focus was centered around the theme of greed and restriction --- the two primary factors of consumerism. This was divided into two succession pieces of “Greed and Freedom I,” and “Greed and Freedom II,” along with the last artwork “Freedom for Who?” being a conclusive summary of consumerism. Since “Greed and Freedom I” initiates the layer, I immediately aimed to inform the viewer of the entrapped nature of consumerism by starting with a piece that creates a restricted atmosphere through its use of symmetry. This meant that it only felt natural to place “Greed and Freedom II” beside it, considering the two artworks built off one another and shared many similarities in terms of composition. The reason why “Greed and Freedom II” is centered in the middle is that I believed that its nuances and variations of color would inspire the audience to contrast their first impressions of this artwork and “Greed and Freedom I,” which would exhibit better conceptual understanding. The final artwork “Burger King” was placed on the final layer to serve as an in depth summary of my exhibition, where it offered a thorough outlook into what transpires greed and how certain people value their own material desires over the well-being of others. This piece was what I believed the audience would see last when viewing my artworks, therefore I felt that it was incredibly important to end off with something that would help resonate with them after my exhibition. 

 

To summarize, the positioning of my artworks served to inform the audience of the restrictive nature of consumerism and its perseverance within all of our lives. The lack of space between each of the artworks within the exhibition highlighted the self-imposed limitations and constraints brought on by consumerism. Through my exhibition, I can only hope that the audience can now recognize their materialistic ways and slowly start to make an effort to care for one another, rather than mindlessly desiring the acquisition of wealth.