Ecology through consumerism belongs to Jennifer Greenburg’s Colored Stories series and has been featured in various exhibitions at our contemporary art gallery. Greenburg has been working with mid-century vernacular images since 2010. Most of that work has been reflected in a related project, Revising History, which it calls attention to the power photography has in creating cultural ideals and mythologies. Colored Stories is after the same aim but concentrates on the raw aesthetic element of color as modern art. Greenburg’s abstract, minimalistic prints sample from mid-century items marketed to Americans. Colors selected by manufacturers reflect yet mask issues of the time, playing off consumer’s concerns while perpetuating a problem.
Greenburg’s color-swatch-like prints sample from mid-century items marketed to American women during WWII, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights movement. Joyous palates were used to help American women, who were suddenly a consumer demographic, forget their status as second-class citizens. Ironically, the fetishization of these colors and items, within the 21st Century, cause the same effect– they allow us to forget an unbalanced past rife with inequality.
Ecology through consumerism is contemporary art that references a specific incident: reactions to a 1970’s oil spill in Santa Barbara, CA. Manufacturers added a bit of green or brown to existing paint mix in the production-line, shifting the popular turquoise, canary yellow, and cherry-red of the 50’s and 60’s into earth tones. Avocado green, harvest gold, and poppy red became vogue even as the use of non-recyclable materials were on the rise.
Jennifer Greenburg
Ecology through consumerism, 2019
Archival ink on cotton rag paper
60 x 10 in. print | 61.5 x 13.5 x 3 in. framed
Edition 1 + 1AP
$6,600