Party City is the Devil
2016-19
The world is drowning in garbage.
We all know its true.
Whether clogging our landfills, or choking fish in the sea, our addiction to things in Late Capitalist America is leading to the potential extinction of nearly everything.
In 2016, I decided to use party supplies as a metaphor for the absurdist, runaway overconsumption that is depleting the world's resources, and changing its climate.
With their candy colors and chemical nature, these paper and plastic playthings are the perfect symbol for taking what we want from the Earth, rather than what we need.
Party City is the world's biggest party supply conglomerate, so I shopped there for 1.5 years, buying objects to make into temporary sculptures in my studio.
All the images were made using natural light only, and contain things that used to be natural resources.
Trees, plants, and oil are converted into plastic spoons, scary masks, diabetes-inducing candy, and paper streamers.
Party City exists to sell trinkets and objects that end up in the trash the day they're used. It's an entirely disposable culture, and one I wanted to put under a microscope with my current work.
(In the case of the recent global news story, Party City helped drained the world of helium, which they give away for free with each mylar balloon they sell.)
Every day, the news gets worse, with respect to the future of our planet.
I'm hoping these colorful, dynamic-yet-dystopic images will help bring attention the climate change, as they present a sense of cheery foreboding and underlying chaos that is difficult to miss.