We’re all in this together (2012)
Installation views at Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne. Sculptural and audio installation: Paper, cardboard, foamcore, adhesives, audio. 1:1 scale models, dimensions variable. Photos: Matthew Stanton.
’We’re all in this together’ is a sculptural and audio installation that reflects on how corporations capitalised on the global connectivity of the Occupy demonstrations. Ironically, the globalised ‘we’ of demonstrations was fabricated by brands such as Coca Cola to advertise the globalised ideals of their own products. The revolution and its radical chic became yet another commodity to market, a contemporary aesthetic. Mimicking the anarchy of the demonstrations, globalisation trashed itself for its own profit. Global antagonism became global ambiguity. In ‘We’re all in this together’ this ambiguity literally litters the space. Branded street litter from around the globe is fabricated as homogenous paper replicas and presented to us as the perfect model of trashed globalisation as generic design chic. Carefully constructing its own trashiness, the installation suggests a reality that merges radical destruction with its inevitable aestheticisation and commodification. Accompanying the ambiguity of the installation, and taken as its title, is Ben Lee’s controversial pop song ‘We’re all in this together’, which was used by Coca Cola to advertise the global connectivity of its product.