“In Cappuccino Wilderness Safari, I seek to investigate how the twin-concerns of celebrity and status are expressed through bourgeois tendencies to “life-stylise”. By utilising the encoded aesthetics of suburbia – specifically those of the new-urban ‘gated community’ and the ubiquitous chain ‘coffee-house’ – I attempt to construct a fictionalised narrative of “the wild”. The faux-egalitarianism posited by these institutions is in some ways contradicted by the seemingly myriad options available to those wishing to ‘buy into’ them. Small, medium, grande, venti, Classical, Tuscan, rendered, double garage, triple garage, decaf, soy: the list of ultimately finite choices – ‘similar, but different’ – encourages consumers to differentiate themselves through the affectations of home furnishings and coffee connoisseurship , yet in doing so, merely participate in a pre-choreographed urban-ballet. However, if I am to judge by outward appearances (which I have encouraged myself to do), this pre-enlightenment ‘faux-geoisie’ seems quite content in their almost-paradise – and who am I to disavow them the right to accessorise? The work seen here is a conscious celebration of the celebrity-induced coffee comas that are surely the cause of the aesthetic mish-mash of new suburbia. Surely.” – J.D. Reforma
I’ll have an extra strong mocha with a twist – and diamantes. Thanks.