Overdrive

Tara Donovan seems to be talking about the same ideas as I am...

Thesis Thoughts...

Over-consumption is more than a habit; for many American’s it is a way of life. There are many factors that have contributed to our routine consumption. I am interested in the discontinuity between our desire to consume and the anxiety caused by consumption. When we try to fulfill our needs with consumer products our anxiety actually increases and we continue to look insatiably toward the next must-have trend or object craving. Studies have shown that as rates of consumption go up, our national happiness rates go down. I am really paying attention to the bombardment of images, materials, and information that fill up our daily lives. How much can co-exist within a space and where does the excess go? I am fascinated by cycles of excess and break down which exist when too much has been consumed and an evening out must occur. This is not a constant cycle that goes on forever but when the cycle has reached a certain point of excess, the internal order is disrupted and chaos ensues. Considering that anxiety is nature’s way of telling us that something is wrong, I wonder how we can all remain so complacent in our routines. My work explores areas of intersection between consumption, desire, and anxiety. I am attempting to bring out an initial state of complacency in the viewer that mounts into an increasing state of anxiety. Not an anxiety related to consumption specifically but one that induces awareness that something is not quite right.