Exhibition Catalog Project #4

GLUTTONY SEPTEMBER 1ST, 2019 FEBRUARY 28TH, 2020

GLUTTONY BY ANNIKA LUO, HANA SUNG, HOWARD CHEUNG, AND ZEIGHN ABU AL TEEN Gluttony is devoted to the works of artists who tackle the issue of consumerism. Over the years, consumerism has instilled in society the notion that constant consumption is a privilege, and to hold those who can do to in high regard. The modern idea of our desire to consume materials is to fill an emotional void, to fulfill our yearning for connection, and to fabricate a superficial facade of wealth and status. The ability to feed the constant urge to consume has become a tell-all sign of one’s happiness, and a desirable lifetime goal for many people. The act of partaking in practices of competitive consumption eventually leads to the burgeoning of materialism—the tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values. This element goes in parallel with those condemned with the sin of Gluttony—a transgression in which the concern with what enters the stomach outweighs the concern on what exerts. The exhibition provides an extensive overview of the manifestation of unrestrained consumerism and materialism and hypothesizes the reason why humans consistently surrender to the provocations of Gluttony. The exhibit features Annika Luo’s Loom (2019), Hana Sung’s Feeding Piggy (2019), Howard Cheung’s CLOGGED (2019), Zeighn Abu Al Teen’s 2Die4 (2019), pieces from Demna Gvasalia’s Vêtements SS20 Collection, COMME des GARÇONS’ SS19 Collection, and a series of artworks from Barbara Kruger— Untitled (I shop therefore I am), Untitled (Our Prices are Insane!), and Untitled (You’ve Got Money to Burn).

FLOOR PLAN 7TH FLOOR OF DOVER STREET MARKET, NEW YORK CITY 1 Feeding Piggy Hana 5 You’ve got Money to Burn Sung Barbara Kruger 2 I Shop Therefore I am 6 Our Prices are Insane Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger 3 Loom Annika Lou 7 2DIE4 Zeighn Abu Al Teen 4 Clogged Howard Cheung 8 SS19 Rei Kawakubo, CDG 9 SS20 Demna Gvasalia, Vêtements

THE ART ANNIKA LOU Annika Luo is an artist based in New York City. She was born in China, and moved to Vancouver, Canada at the age of twelve, where she lived for six years. She containous to explore the dichotomy within her unique cultural identities and the conjunction of different cultural perspectives that she has experienced. Annika grew up practicing drawing and painting, which laid the foundation for her later explorations in 3D materials, fashion design, theatre production. Annika is currently studying Strategic Design and Management at Parsons School of Design in New York City. HANA SUNG Hana Sung is a Korean American artist based in New York City studying strategic design and management at Parsons School of Design. In the past she has frequently worked with acrylic paintings, but has now moved on to exploring different media and forms of art such as film, photography and fashion design. Regardless of whichever medium she is working with, Hana’s every action when making a piece is purposeful. She believes that each detail in an artwork has the potential to become a symbol or a metaphor, and can contribute to delivering a certain message. Hana incorporates these metaphors to make social commentary or create pieces that deal with topics that are deemed taboo by society.

TISTS HOWARD CHEUNG Howard Cheung is a first-generation Asian American pursuing fashion design. He was born in Orange County, California, and raised in Vancouver, Canada. In his dictionary, art is freedom. Creation allows him to dig deep beneath his skin and surface his most authentic self. His creative process is deliberate yet spontaneous. Through interweaving these two contradictory yet complementary tendencies, he has slowly unveiled his artistic style. Throughout his creative excursions, Cheung has experimented in the dance, music, and film worlds. Through these experiences, he realized a constant theme in his artistic ventures—he loved bridging the space between a tangible product and its intangible expression. Fashion is the medium that allows him to intersect these interests. Even during his excursion in the dance, music and film worlds, he always enjoyed adding his unique touch to costumes, accessories, and props. He wants to become a fashion designer who not only creates fashion traditionally but also visualizes and effectively positions that design in the larger context and environment. Currently, Cheung is studying fashion design at Parsons School of Design in New York City. ZEIGHN ABU AL TEEN Zeighn Abu Al Teen is a Palestinian artist/ designer that is heavily influenced by surrealist art. She is currently studying fashion design at Parsons School of Design in New York City. A few of her experiences in the art world include an internship at Nafsika Skourti’s design firm and participating as a designer in Amman Design Week. Zeighn continues to use her art as a platform to comment on identity, home and exile; doing so through the use of unconventional materials as art making tools. Through her art, she aims to establish a better understanding of the Arab world, and greater communication with the Western world.

THE ART DEMNA GVASALIA Demna Gvasalia is a Georgian designer and the head of the Persian fashion collective VETEMENTS. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The designer has previous experience working for both Maison Margiela and Louis Vuitton before joining forces with six friends to create a new brand. Although a high fashion label, VETEMENTS is humorous and grounded in its approach to design and marketing. The brand’s couture takes on streetwear stems, according to Gvasalia, from the brand’s personal focus group: his friends. After three seasons at VETEMENTS, Gvasalia caught the eye of Balenciaga, who appointed him as its creative director. BARBARA KRUGER Barbara Kruger is an American artist who challenged cultural assumptions by manipulating images and text in her photographic compositions. Kruger attended Syracuse University and continued her training in 1966 at New York City’s Parsons School of Design. By the late 1970s, Kruger had developed her trademark style: large-scale photographic works that appropriate anonymous cultural images and text and juxtapose them in unexpected ways. By manipulating and recontextualizing imagery, Kruger sought to question the way accepted sources of power, in this case, the mass media, present female identity. Her grounding in the theoretical connects her with contemporary developments in conceptual art.

TISTS REI KAWAKUBO Rei Kawakubo is a fashion designer from Tokyo, Japan, the creator of Comme des Garçons, and the founder of Dover Street Market. She did not attain a degree in fashion designing but has studied literature and art at Keio University. Her brand is famous for its austere, anti-fashion and at times deconstructed apparel. The fabrics are draped and frayed, with rough edges and asymmetrical shapes. According to Rei Kawakubo, the creation of new ideas is important since it takes things in a forward direction. If nothing original is produced, then progress is not possible. The equivalent to ‘new’ is ‘creation’. ALL AT DSMNY Dover Street Market is a multi-brand retailer and concept store originally located on Dover Street, in Mayfair, London. It has stores in New York City, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing and Los Angeles. Dover Street Was created by Rei Kawakubo of Japanese fashion label Comme des Garçons and her husband Adrian Joffe. The store sells all Comme des Garçons brands and complementary high fashion brands. Dover Street Market aims to not distinguish between men and women, cheap and expensive, new, strong creation and timeless tradition. Dover Street Market has successfully introduced industrial, anti-luxury aesthetic to the fashion retail.

EXHIBITED Feeding Piggy Hana Sung, 2019 Short Film Feeding Piggy is a film collage that features original and existing photographs and videos that come together to imagine what an exaggeration of consumerism may look like, and study what kind of people are most vulnerable to succumbing to the seduction of consumption. Like any drug, the satisfaction that comes from excessive purchases has the potential to birth a new addiction. It is a feeling of euphoria that our society has fixated on and encouraged to pursue. Like any other addiction, squandering does not pick and choose who it wants to affect. In the film, the selected clips of a Black Friday shopping mob and a tour of Kylie Jenner’s closet represent the lower/middle class and the opposing upper class respectively. While it is obvious that the wealthy may splurge their money on material goods because they simply have the financial means to do so, no social group is exempt from the disease that is over consumption. If anything, people struggling with low economic situations may be more vulnerable to falling into this dangerous cycle of meaningless spending. Everyone wants to be accepted and respected, and our culture has shaped it so that expensive materials and an excess of materials are factors that can lure in the desired admiration. This disorder of placing such high value on material goods is detrimental to the middle and lower class. Their yearn to partake in the privileges of the higher class urges them to save every penny and make outrageous purchases in hopes to one day create a facade for their life. Consumerism has deformed people of society into piggy banks and is illustrated in the film with the devouring of coins and the hammering of the head. When the piggy bank is broken, the film transitions into a scene mimicking a mukbang. This term has become popular with the trending of eating shows where people sit and devour mountains of food. It is essentially the perfect manifestation of gluttony. This almost grotesque visual of gluttony parallels what it would look like if the word “consume” in consumerism and consumption were put in a literal context. By having the girl in the film ingest her material possessions, the artist intends to visually expose the insanity of consumerism and materialism. The film reaches the with a scene of vomit going down the toilet, sending a warning that over consumption comes with consequences. Whether it is a consequence of financial instability or the inability to ever be satisfied, the materials that were once held in such high regard quickly lose value and become worthless. This is the never ending life cycle of a person suffering an addiction to consumption: save, splurge, struggle to be content, discard, and then repeat the endless pattern.

ARTWORKS You’ve got Money to Burn, I Shop therefore I am, Our Prices are Insane Barbra Kruger, Print You’ve Got Money to Burn is one of Kruger’s social commentaries on consumption and materialism. The art speaks to the viewers in a sarcastic tone, pointing out our addiction to meaningless purchases. Burning money has become routine in our society. We do not question whether or not our spending is even necessary. Purchase made without a purpose has no value, making the money disappear for good as if it were burned. With this art Kruger gives us a mirror and forces us to notice our destructive desire to consume. In reference to Descartes’ philosophy of “I think therefore I am,” I Shop Therefore I Am is a photographic silkscreen by Barbara Kruger that holds the intention of pulling in an audience, and then meditate on what material consumption is and its effect on us. The bold text juxtaposed against a simple black and white image allows viewers to solely focus and meditate on the message Kruger wants to send. The art speaks to the idea that material consumption, when the habit spins out of control, becomes a part of one’s identity. Kruger warns that materialism and the need to consume may end up becoming one’s sole purpose in life and the reason for his or her existence. In Kruger’s journey challenging social and political boundaries, Our Prices are Insane critiques consumption, the use of culture as a commodity in the art market, and the methods of contemporary production. The piece resembles ad-speak and displays a feeling of chaos with the image of the manic man to relate the absurdity of the issue. Kruger admits to being part of the problem as an artist in the industry by leaving the text open. When the text is read as the perspective of marketers luring people to feed their desires to consume, the text convinces that the prices are actually very low and a great deal. However, when text is read by one involved in the art market, which Kruger herself is involved in, it encourages those people to to be self-reflexive and self-critical of their contribution and the insanely high prices in the industry.

EXHIBITED Loom Annika Lou, 2019 Mixed Media Sculpture After reading Solmaz Sharif’s essay “The Near Transitive Properties of the Political and Poetical: Erasure” and looking at erasure excerpts from the book A Humument by Tom Phillips, I created a series of erasures made from documents that hold power over me, such as personal journal entries, secret texts, and a farewell poem “Loom.” In her essay, Sharif states, “Erasure is obliteration. The Latin root of obliteration (ob- against and lit(t)era letter) means the striking out of text.” She expands on the use of erasure as censorship. A seven-year-old girl wrote a letter to her dad Moazzam Begg, who was arrested in Pakistan and detained for three years in Guantánamo, but the letter was so heavily censored that the only legible line left was, “I love you, Dad.” The censored lines were a poem she had copied for him: “One, two, three, four, five, / Once I caught a fish alive. / Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, / Then I let it go again.” While Sharif focuses on the political aspect of censorship and erasure, Phillips is more interested in “the discovery of nonce or nonsense terms which provide a fantasy obbligato to the measure of the text. These are extracted from longer words.” For example, the title of the book A Humument is an extraction from the original title “A Human Document,” where Phillips crossed out “an Doc” using ink pen. He also used drawing and painting over text as a form of erasure. The backbone of my erasure piece is a farewell poem called “Loom” written by my ex-boyfriend’s mom’s partner, Stuart Beckmann, with whom I became close friends. This poem comforted me in the hurtle of moving back to China and breaking up with loved ones. It is about the everlasting connection and love between me and their family. Beckmann beautifully summarized my experience with “moving” to foreign places and “leaving” loved ones. I want this erasure to pay homage to my friends and families in Vancouver. Prior to this project, I did not have the courage to express my emotional vulnerability, and had never before created an erasure. But after studying both Sharif’s essay and Phillips’s excerpts, I saw the erasure form as an opportunity to achieve catharsis. This made the erasure tactic into an act of emphasizing. Mimicking techniques Phillips used in A Humument, instead of “striking out” certain texts, I decided to select texts. To begin, I made large prints of Stuart’s original handwriting from the letter he gave me, and traced every word front and back onto a large-scale drawing paper. The hours I spent embodying his handwriting were a way for me to show my appreciation and gratitude to loved ones. Ultimately, I made a large replica of Beckmann’s poem and created a visual representation of “Loom.” That’s why I decided to weave black yarn and coloured yarn together. The coloured yarn all connects simultaneously: one leads to the next. There’s always one after the one before, and there is always one before the one after, to represent the different people that have crossed my path and left their mark. think this is how everybody’s life is. We are all beings seeking love, union, connection, one-ness, you might call it; it is a divine endeavor. We are made up of our experiences. Everybody’s loom has a lot of their own fabric, but the people we meet throughout our journey will inevitably weave a few strings of colour into our fabric. We are just one colourful part in each other’s loom. This is my loom, and these people have woven their way into my fabric, and I have into theirs. And we’ll keep on weaving.

ARTWORKS Clogged Howard Cheung, 2019 Mixed Media Sculpture The opulent and sybaritic lifestyle pursued by the general population fuels the acquisition of unnecessary goods. As a result, many find themselves to be overwhelmed and inundated with items they do not need. In Howard Cheung’s piece, the abundance of objects overfilling the toilet as a result of one’s splurging on personal desires acts as a metaphor for this matter. It is also a manifestation of the saying, “money down the drain.” Every year, people spend more money on material goods such as shoes, jewelry, and watches rather than on higher education—in 2014, Americans spent $57.4 billion on Black Friday Weekend alone. However, the average American throws away 65 pounds of clothing annually. Not to mention, despite being less than a quarter of the size of China, Americans expel more than one million tons more electronic devices than the country. The average American household has more than $7,500 in consumer debt, over 300,000 items, and more television sets than there are people. Furthermore, the average child alone will accumulate an average of 238 toys by the time they reach ten years of age—however, they will only play with around twelve of them. Although they make up just over three percent of the global population of children, American kids consume forty percent of the world’s toys. On the graffitied back wall of the display is a glory hole with money protruding in place of genitalia. The glory hole, in essence, is a representation of the pursuit of hedonistic pleasure involving the anonymous sexual interaction of individuals. This relationship allows them to escape from their identities and obligations in the real world to engage in wanton abandon. Consumerism, in various ways, share similarities with this concept. Just as the wall grants the individuals at the glory hole obscurity, the internet provides a web of anonymity that empowers people to partake in practices of competitive consumption. Consequently, in some sense, consumerism is anonymous; it is all hidden in that no one knows what you are buying—should you choose it—and no one witnesses how much you are spending. With a layer of anonymity, people are further propelled to splurge, exacerbating the imbalance between monetary obligations and personal desires. Through a meticulous combination of all these elements, “CLOGGED” was born.

EXHIBITED 2DIE4 Zeighn Abu Al Teen, 2019 Mixed Media Sculpture 2DIE4 is a body of work that entangles the themes of wasteful consumerism and gluttonous acts. The coffin shaped sculpture is a compositional piece that is open ended, and experimental. One that uses symbols as a creative medium, remixing a variety of motifs to produce a narrative. A narrative of a constructed perspective on consumerism in which the underlying theme is an individual’s psychological attachment of their identities to material goods, a theme interpreted in a variety of ways depending on who is viewing it. 2DIE4 explores the occupational impact goods have had on our current society, and its ability to blur one’s rational thinking leading them straight to their grave. The title of the piece acts as a pun that further highlights the theme, as it borrows the overused phrase “to die for” which comically describe one’s deathly need for a good. In a way, the aforementioned elements exaggerate the average individual’s need to consume, yet still highlights our society’s destiny if such a mindset persists. 2DIE4 continues to emphasize how consumerism has become a disease that knows no age, gender, or social class. The repetition in the sculpture and its placement across the wall engulfs the viewer in a cycle, one that mimics the addictive consumerist cycle. In addition, 2DIE4 acts as a memento mori for it warns the viewer of consequences of partaking in this deadly sin.

ARTWORKS SS19 Rei Kawakubo, 2018 Fashion Collection, CDG Rei Kawakubo’s collection for Spring 2019 speak to the designer’s journey of introspection and self-criticism. Unlike her previous 10 seasons, Kawakubo was felt her approach with the designs have become mundane and was in search for something new, and within that process found that expressing what is deep inside was a fresh approach. The details in the collection serve as metaphors for what Kawakubo feels about carrying the responsibilities that come with being a female boss of a company. The padded protrusions on the bellies and handwritten logos as prints reveal the burden she feels as the sole provider of creativity and birthmother to these creations. Some of Kawakubo’s looks in this collection also feature heavy chains and shackles that confess the internalized limitations she has created for herself. However, she does not lose to these restrictions and takes her power back by admitting that she has created these restrictions for herself and is unsatisfied with it. The details teach that one first needs to recognize that the chains exist in order to break them. SS20 Demna Gvasalia, 2019 Fashion Collection, Vetements Following Raf Simons’ recent direction in menswear, the Spring 2020 collection for Vetements is intended to critique and blame late-stage capitalism for our current social decay. By incorporating texts speaking to this issue and outfits that mimic various uniforms, designer Demna Gvasalia sarcastically points fingers at corporate managers and bankers, at populism, the internet, and at the fashion industry’s massive waste contribution due to overproduction driven by greed. Although Gvasalia does make valid criticisms, it is questionable if he even deserves a place in the discussion as him and his brand Vetements is still a part of the profit-driven production cycle imbedded in the fashion industry.

INTERVIEW WHAT DOES YOUR WORK ENTAIL? “My work obligations as a curator range tremendously. Since I predominantly work in collaboration with other curators, we are each tasked with specific tasks and responsibilities. So, one day I would be responsible for working out logistics and supervising the acquisition of objects and collections, keeping records and cataloging, planning and organizing exhibitions, researching pieces, planning budgets, or even training staff and new employees to see everything in a ‘Comme des Garçons way.’” WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO WORK AS A CURATOR FOR DOVER STREET MARKET? “Throughout my life, I’ve always enjoyed shopping and visiting the many museums in New York. DSM allows me to combine these two entirely disparate elements into one. After garnering a plethora of experience in the field and obtaining a master’s degree in art, I decided to apply to become a curator for the store, as it was one of the only established fashion houses that present and sell clothes within a gallery-like setting.” HOW DID YOU GET STARTED? “My journey to becoming a curator for Dover Street Market consisted of numerous internships and jobs in the industry. Although a majority of the positions I’ve held did not fall under the “curator” spectrum, the experience was incredibly helpful in understanding how the enterprise works and how museums and the like earn money. Fortunately, I’ve stumbled across several curatorial opportunities along the way. My most vivid memory would be the first time I curated for a museum

WITH LARDS: of contemporary art. When they were proposing exhibition ideas, I submitted one in which they accepted; from that experience, I remember completely falling in love with the process.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT INTERACTIVE EXHIBITIONS? “I believe that every exhibition should be interactive in some form. I think that not only does it engage the visitors’ senses beyond sight, but it also stimulates intellectually and emotionally, which ultimately promotes better understanding and creates a more enjoyable experience. For the Dover Street Market, the team and I work extremely hard to deviate from the typical retail experience; our principal goal is to create a clothes shop where the relationship between the brands and us, as well as between clientele and staff, is of utmost importance. We strive to provide collections selected from the very best brands in fashion, and meticulously amalgamate them into an environment of beautiful chaos comprised of breathtaking visuals.” WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON CONSUMERISM? “In my opinion, the majority of the population most likely spend most of their money on personal and unnecessary items instead of saving for important financial responsibilities. However, I believe it’s a general concept many citizens do this naturally due to “public figures” and the influences of mass media. Take YouTubers reviewing and promoting makeup products, games, skincare, food, and clothes as an example. These influences lead others to become more open to new products and create demand for those products. Although I do think there should be a system that prohibits excessive spending, at the same time, it is because of this that allows us to discover useful products on the market. Overall, I believe that consumerism isn’t all bad; however, we should establish a balance between one’s financial responsibilities and personal desires.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY • “Rei Kawakubo: Fashion Designer Biography.” FAMOUS FASHION DESIGNERS, www.famousfashiondesigners.org/rei-kawakubo. This resource allowed us to explore more about one of the included artists, Rei Kawakubo. This resources highlighted what her art stands for, and how it ties into our exhibition. • Dazed. “Demna Gvasalia.” Dazed, 8 Feb. 2016, www.dazeddigital.com/ projects/article/29519/1/demna-gvasalia. This resource allowed us to explore more about one of the included artists, Demna Gvasalia. This resources highlighted what her art stands for, and how it ties into our exhibition. • The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Barbara Kruger.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 22 Jan. 2019, www.britannica.com/ biography/Barbara-Kruger. This resource allowed us to explore more about one of the included artists, Barbara Kruger. This resources highlighted what her art stands for, and how it ties into our exhibition. • Mower, Sarah. “Vetements Spring 2020 Menswear Fashion Show.” Vogue, Vogue, 22 June 2019, https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2020- menswear/vetements. This resource allowed us to view the included artwork. This resources helped us curate the show. • Mower, Sarah. “Comme Des Garçons Spring 2019 Ready-to-Wear Fashion Show.” Vogue, Vogue, 23 Oct. 2018, https://www.vogue.com/fashion- shows/spring-2019-ready-to-wear/comme-des-garcons. This resource allowed us to view the included artwork. This resources helped us curate the show. • “I Shop Therefore I Am.” CONSUMPTION, https://noaozielart.weebly. com/i-shop-therefore-i-am.html. This resource allowed us to view the included artwork. This resources helped us curate the show.

• “Now Contemporary Curated.” Kruger, Barbara Untitled (Our Pric ||| Other ||| Sotheby’s n09316lot7bf3jen, http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ ecatalogue/2015/contemporary-curated-n09316/lot.275.html. This resource allowed us to view the included artwork. This resources helped us curate the show. • Carey, Jesse. “11 Stats That Will Change the Way You Think About Consumerism.” RELEVANT Magazine, 23 Nov. 2017, relevantmagazine.com/ current/11-stats-will-change-way-you-think-about-consumerism/. This resource allowed us to understand more about the concept and impact of consumerism. It allowed us to find underlying themes to consumerism. • Lowe, Mark. “Crazy Facts About Consumerism.” Change The Code, 29 Dec. 2017, minimalistlifestyle.wordpress.com/2017/12/29/facts-about- consumerism/. This resource allowed us to understand more about the concept and impact of consumerism. It allowed us to find underlying themes to consumerism. • Beckmann, Stuart. “Loom.” December. 14, 2018. This resource is a poem used in one of the exhibited artworks. Acted as an inspiration to the artwork. • Sharif, Solmaz. “The Near Transitive Properties of the Political and Poetical: Erasure.” EVENING WILL COME: A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POETICS, http://www.thevolta.org/ewc28-ssharif-p1.html. This resource is an essay used to inspire a technique for one of the artworks. Acted as a helpful tool in the art making. • Phillips, Tom. “Tom Phillips’s Introduction to the 6th Edition, 2016.” http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/humument/introduction. This resource is an erasure used as research for one of the exhibited artworks. Acted as an inspiration.

160 LEXINGTON AVE, NEW YORK, NY, 10016