The Chinese consumer holiday Singles Day is the anti-valentines sales day which prompts the uncoupled to ‘find what you’re looking for…’ on Alibaba.com, perhaps attract foreign cashmere to snuggle into every night? Or, like Destiny’s Child put it, ‘pay your automobills, pay your telephone bills’, and ‘just do it’ for yourself day. By midnight 11.11.2014 real-time data from Alibaba showed customers spent US$9.3 billion marking this as the largest online sales day in history.

 

As society’s intangible needs continue to be placated by manufactured solutions, are these synthetic consumer alternatives to IRL any less of an authentic experience? In other words, is there space amongst the faux for something (fo) real?

 

This presentation of work employs materials and processes that, for the observer, are often unfamiliar at first blush. Lo-fi, cheap and mass produced linoleum, vinyl and metallic tape are exploited for their aesthetic qualities: imitating attributes of their native counterparts; marble, gold leaf and embossing. An audio work by Jordana Bragg, sounding out like a public announcement, translates natural behaviour into a synthetic set of instructions.

 

The final day of this show will fall on 11.11 - Singles Day.

 

30 Upstairs Gallery, New Zealand