Artist and new media professor Rosemary Williams can lay claim to a title few will challenge: she has made a purchase at every store (save two) at the Mall of America, and lived to tell the tale. Williams did it with a goal in mind: to create a sculpture out of the nearly 500 shopping bags. She's on the show today to tell us all about what she saw, what she bought, what she returned, and what she just couldn't part with, and you can see her finished project by clicking on "sculpture" above. Have you ever been to the Mall of America? Did you buy a souvenir ... or perhaps make a little art out of your leftover tissue paper?
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Her Wall of Mall also demonstrates the ridiculous amount of packaging -- as in bags -- that is consumed.
So much of the cost of waste to governments and taxpayers is due to disposable plastic bags. And it's not getting cheaper.
Ireland introduced a tax on most disposable plastic bags in 2002 and it has reduced their use appreciably (90% in just six months). Shoppers now opt for tougher, reusable bags.
I loved how the idea of getting these bags turned into the process of purchasing and returning items. You'd think from a customer service and cost-saving angle (service time, transaction, return service time, restocking), in the long run it would have been better for the stores to just give her the bag!
A woman obsessing over shopping bags from the world's largest shopping mall, the perfect ending to a discussion on the "dumbing down" of America.
This piece (with the concept of the titanic mall as cultural mecca, indeed even a pilgrimage site where people go for cultural affirmation) reminds me entirely too much of a fictional radio play by ZBS Media in the delightful "Ruby: Galactic Gumshoe" series. Link: http://www.zbs.org/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2_23&products_id=243
Magnifico, the City of Malls, is literally a character in this story of good vs evil, corporate machinations and the effect of marketing on the psyche. All the Ruby stories stand alone with a small learning curve but the entire series are great.
But yeah, this is the case of life imitating art.
Dear Rosemary. I enjoy the fact that you point at the overwhelming presense of conspicuous consumption. It is a big part of status-seeking middle class life. From looking at your installation, however I can't tell if you're trying to criticise this phenomenon or simply condense in a small piece what can be experienced in any mall on full scale probably by more people that will get to see your installation. If your piece had a clearer subjective message it would be easier to start a conversation. What does consumption culture mean to YOU?
Now she's ready for the world's largest mall, West Edmonton Mall, with over 800 stores and over 5 million square feet.
http://www.westedmall.com/about/wemtrivia.asp
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