
There are too many things in the cupboard
Aligned from the floor up, the images form a graph-like cityscape that tracks the traces of human interaction in our urban and rural environments. Built from scratch, the images were graphed according to data tallying the cost of consumer goods in mass-market magazines—the underlying graph charts the cost of keeping up-to-date with the latest objects and fashions according to the glossies. For this Wunderwall I tallied the March 2008 issue of Australian Harper’s Bazaar. Goods and services to the value of AU$6.2 million were mentioned in editorial content — I didn’t include any advertised products — marketed to readers with an average annual income of around AU$42,000.
If you take that particular March issue as an average, and extrapolate that out to an annual figure we get AU$75 million worth of editorialised goods marketed towards readers. Using that as inspiration I put together this Wunderwall juxtaposing images of found things, the detritus of consumerism and various shots representing wanderings. The photo-installation brings into focus the residue of consumption, personal and collective memory, and homogenisation.

Detail from There are too many things in the cupboard
Details
There are too many things in the cupboard, 2009
3,254 pigment prints, each 15 x 20 cm
4.5 x 26.25 metres (height x width)
Exhibition
ANU School of Art Gallery
Australian National University
March 2009
PRESS
Close-up Picture of Society, Ron Cerabona
The Canberra Times, March 2009