This painting requires a little explanation . This is the second piece for my Art+Phil series, and it is a visual critique of contemporary consumerism.
The central figure is the consumer, the paragon of the contemporary American consumerist attitude.
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| |Critique.of.Contemporary.Man.2011.02.10| |
The bottle on the table has been emptied, and what remained in the glass has been spilt. It has been used and nothing of it is left for anyone else. On the bed lies a murdered prostitute. Again, she has been used and then disposed of. The figure is turned to leave the room, off to consumer more. The figure is faceless, its rabid consumption has stripped it of individuality, and perhaps even personhood.
The figure is dark, everything is sucked into it, nothing escapes, not even color.
I was inspired to paint this painting after having a discussion about consumerism in one of my classes last fall. What scares me most about this painting is even though I would condemn the consumerism in our culture today, there are many traces of it in myself. I am the viewer in this painting, confronted with what I could become if I do not hold my consumption in check.
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| |Critique.of.Contemporary.Man.2011.02.10| |
Seeing this painting inspires me to try harder to be a producer as well as a consumer; to give as much as I can, and consume only what I need.
-SDB