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Last week, I popped by WAG-Qaumajuq to interview Winnipeg visual artist Ryan Smoluk, whose first solo exhibition, Maze City, is on view now.
You should go and spend some time with it; his art practice spans mediums and styles. Some pieces are surreal; some are more literal — like the one I was most taken with, a large assemblage work called Horrors of Plastic in the Ocean, from 2014.
Local artist Ryan Smoluk’s solo show, Maze City is on at Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG)-Qaumajuq until May 3.(Mike Deal / Free Press files)
It’s a large outline of a shark, lined with pink LED lights. The cavity of the shark, is crammed full of found plastic objects: those little dinosaurs three-year-olds are always clutching in their chubby little fists, rubber snakes, doll heads, cosmetic containers, Barbies, sword-shaped cocktail picks in a violent shade of green, a Thomas the Tank Engine, a plastic fork.
This work was inspired by those terrible, viral photographs of dead sea birds, their bodies stuffed with so much plastic detritus it looks like they’ve exploded.
“I just thought, you know what? This is not too much different from us as people. We fill our life with all these things and think that we’re going to be fulfilled, but all the while it’s killing us,” Smoluk told me, and woo, boy, he’s not wrong.
The contents of the shark’s body made me think of the online phrase “landfillcore,” to describe all the cheap plastic knickknacks people add to cart in pursuit of dopamine and whimsy. So many little treats, filling and killing the bodies of sea creatures whose only crime was hunger.
Smoluk’s piece entitled Horrors of Plastic in the Ocean. (Mike Deal / Free Press files)
I, too, have been trying to consume less. I’ve been inundated with decluttering and anti-overconsumption content on Instagram because once you consume one video, you’re fed a million — its own cycle of overproduction and overconsumption.
People are documenting their low-spend and no-spend challenges, or hauling out garbage bags of stuff, bemoaning the fact that all those things used to be money and all that money used to be time.
I’ve been watching one woman make meals for an entire month just out of stuff she’s been stockpiling in her pantry, fridge and freezer and it’s oddly compelling and inspiring.
But I’m also trying not to be too all-or-none/strident about this, because sometimes food waste happens — I am not a trash can! I don’t need to eat expired condiments with gummy lids! — and trying to hit Spending Zero is as much of a fool’s errand as trying to hit Inbox Zero, especially since leaving the house seems to cost $50. Also, buying stuff is fun.
I do have some pretty good underconsumption habits already. I’m not a big beauty product junkie, which seems to be a major site for overconsumption for people. I don’t have a steady stream of next-day delivery Amazon packages arriving at my door. I generally stick to my meal plan and grocery list.
But lest we get too smug, here: those things are easy for me — they aren’t my spending Waterloos.
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I have zero restraint around craft supplies and seasonal decor. I also love clothes and tend to come down with a serious case of the shoppies every time the season changes, but I have a couple of new rules about clothing purchases: they are subject to a 24-hour cooling-off period and, if I really want the item after that, I am allowed to purchase it — but only if it’s an item on my list. (It also helps to shop with friends who tell you “you already own that.”)
I also rely too much on convenience sometimes and, while Ubers and takeout do not contribute to clutter, they do contribute to a lower-than-desired bank account balance. And those takeout containers become garbage that lives forever in the landfill and in the belly of the shark.
Nexties, I’m curious: are you thinking about consumption habits (either of physical things or online content)? And if you’re trying to scale back, tell me what strategies you’ve found helpful.
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