Cecilia Stenbom, The List, 2014

Cecilia Stenbom

The List,
2014
Teleprompter, HD Camera, Microphone, HD Projectors, Desktop Computer, Actor, Data Collector, mixed media
39cm | 15 3/8in

About this work

Consisting of performance, installation and video work, Stenbom's project for FIGURE TWO, The List, as the title suggests, begins with a list. At the beginning of the exhibition week the list will consist of 117 items that the artist wants or needs. During the course of the exhibition, the list will be expanded upon and added to by gallery visitors and the wider public to create an evolving analysis of consumer desires. Each day there will be a performance in which an actor enters the gallery, stands on a mark in front of a camera, and delivers the list with the aid of a teleprompter. Once the actor is finished, the footage will be captured and projected back into the space, representing the list as an endless audio visual loop that surrounds the scrolling teleprompter and the actor's mark. To gather more items for the list, a data collector is sent out into the city each day with a brief to approach people on the street and ask them to name two products: one they want and one they need. They will be asked to be as specific as possible with their choices focusing on type, colour, make and brand. The collector will return intermittently to the gallery to hand over 'I am interested in creating a state of never ending consumer desire, where economic growth is the answer to everything, by making a list that can be ticked off but never completed. By placing this in a public gallery, one of the few non-domestic places left free from most commercial messages, I hope to create a poignant moment for reflection on the compulsive nature of spending in the pursuit of the good life through consumerism.' Actor: Arabella Arnott Data collector: Gina-Maria McCarthy


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