Date: March 2009
Medium: Glass, Scent, Boxes
Consumerism was, arguably, the religion of the twentieth century and continues to be so today. It is ubiquitous and invasive, driven by human frivolity, material prosperity and quick-pace technology. This installation aimed to promote an enlightened awareness of one of the undesirable effects of consumerist culture, specifically, the rapid irruption and spread of destructive consumerist elements that have blighted the urban landscape in Manila, Philippines, the city where I grew up. It is evolved from the concern with the faculty of memory and its unique relationship with the olfactory sense of perception. Unavoidably, the installation, being physical and tangible in nature, necessarily creates a visual experience. But it can also be defined by its olfactory elements mainly through the use of various scents which I gathered or concocted from the urban landscape and placed in glass bottles which I designed and personally crafted through the glass-blowing techniques I learned in order to execute the project.
____
Exhibited at the College of Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines Diliman and the Ateneo Art Gallery,
Registered as Goldieland Studio / New York, NY