No Logo Still LIfe (Print)

No Logo Part ll : Still Life Up-Close (for Part l, you can go to https://helenchungstudio.com/no-logo-pret-a-porter )

The still life photographs of the sculptures portray the next phase of transformation of the shopping bags, (see https://helenchungstudio.com/no-logo-pret-a-porter ). They’re photographed from untypical angles to avoid mere representation (re-objectification) of the bags; some are extreme close-ups and some taken from inside the sculptures looking out, also enabling the object its own point of view. The sources and process of these photographs are intentionally further obfuscated (in most of them with photoshop) to render the kind of obscurity and mystery associated with how the products in our market place became what they are — as most of us take no interest in knowing the process or how many hands the product traveled through to become the commodity that we buy and use. Prompted by Karl Marx’s alienation theory where he addressed the inevitability of worker’s alienation to his product in industrialized commodity producing societies, my intention is to further the events the paper bags undergo by exploring the possibilities within the properties of the bags; (nothing is taken out or added- except for paint, it’s the body alone that undergoes transformation). In a sense, without anthropomorphizing the bags, I’m surrounding them with subjectivity at the same time objectifying them. And every phase of this transformation of the bags being self reliant encompasses again, the importance of “individuality”.

For the sculptures from this show, click here: