In our poppy marketing culture things are imbued brightly with colors- a peppy pink duster, an aqua loofa, and red Swedish Fish. I am interested in how objects transcend their human-attributed use-value and assert their own agency or thing-power. In my photography career I have predominantly centered on people and their spaces while thinking about at what point do things become attached to people? When do objects begin to carry meaning, memory, and to hold sway over people? I’m interested in how things act on us specifically in this vibrant colored capitalist consumerist society. In “All Objects Are Deviant: Feminism and Ecological Intimacy,” Timothy Morton speaks of the mutual veeringof objects and humans and the complicated relationship of who is acting on who, asserting:
“I veer toward the refrigerator. Am I choosing of my own free will to open it and find the cool sparkling water? Or do the fridge and my sparkling water fantasy of what is inside the fridge emit kinds of tractor beams, such that like a good surfer I catch their waves and find myself drawn toward them? There is a basic uncertainty there, an uncertainty we should not try to crush or ignore… Free will is overrated. What is now required is a mutual veering…” (79).
Credits: Keturah Michael, Stylist
