Self-consumption

MODERN SOCIETY seems to be driven by the massive consumption of goods, for all of its consequent impact in ecology. In an attempt to keep up with our peers we desperately want a new pair of shoes, the new mobile device on the market or that cool touch-screen tablet. The crucial question is: do we really need them? Or is it more a question of personal satisfaction to keep up appearances?

Timo Wright’s giant photographic collage was inspired by the book Once Were Consumers: Four Tales From 2023 by Roope Mokka and Aleksi Neuvonen. Wright found out that an average Finnish family owns an estimated 10,000 objects, whereas a student possesses about 3,500. His work, Self-Portrait, illustrates how easily we can become pack rats and presents the question: what do the things I own say about me? Wright’s collection of his own personal “needed” and “non-needed” possessions are all on display in the form of 3,328 documented photographs that cover the exhibition’s walls.

In a journey to discover what kind of consumer he is, visitors to the exhibition will no doubt see their own possessions in a new light when they return home.

For Wright, paradoxically, the most interesting fact happening recently was the volcano eruption in Iceland. “People realised it is possible to use alternative means of transport when flying is not an option.” Buying gives pleasure, which lasts a blink of an eye. Recycling can be as expensive as buying, and not always possible. What is the price we are paying for being greedy? Wright attempts to make the viewers more conscious about the objects they own and to assess the real need of them.

Self-Portrait
Until 9 May
Taidehalli Studio
Helsinki
www.taidehalli.fi

SUSAN FOURTANÉ – HT
TIMO WRIGHT – Image

First published in the Helsinki Times on May 6th, 2010. http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/culture/10959-self-consumption.html

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