Kristin McIver, Statement Pieces

Beaudrillard proclaimed that the human experience is no longer a life lived of one’s own accord; rather we are simulating a life prescribed to us through urban indoctrination. Statement Pieces aims to break down the illusions of advertising, stripping away a bombardment of false ideals to render each aspirational statement as one and the same – mere representation.

McIver collects words and phrases from advertising, and subverts their message through context within her artworks. Your Shining Star seduces, inspires, instructs, and while on further contemplation, presents simply a neon sign, shining in fluorescent luminescence. The decadence proposed by The Good Life is rendered meaningless when juxtaposed within a knot of chains. Wishlist presents an indeterminate list of ideals, which in themselves are simply representational “wishes” eager to be satiated and replaced by the next desire.

Statement Pieces continues McIver’s investigation into desire, aspiration and consumerism in the 21st century. Through her works, the artist challenges how fundamental human needs, emotions and desires have been transformed into commodities, resulting in a society which is a simulacrum of constructed ideals.