Studio Work > Michigan: Land of Riches (2010)

Land of Riches (GR vitrine detail)
Land of Riches (GR vitrine detail)
Found object collection, latex paint, vinyl text
2010

Sample display text:

Disposable plastic trinkets and cheap electronics have become inextricably linked in our popular imagination to “emerging economies" of the Far East.

However, the average American consumes 53 times more natural resources than a person living in China. In other words, it is our nation's endless appetite for stuff that renders these Far Eastern exports so lucrative.

Which culture, then, warrants greater criticism - foreign manufacturers of "cheap goods" or fickle American consumers who regard resource-intensive products as ephemera?