While in San Francisco on a residency during October of 2010, I met Rael Artel whom I immediately began to like very much not only for her intelligence, but for her sharp sense of humor. In our many discussions about art and life, we stumbled upon a subject both of us found ourselves more extensively engaged with than others. In this case, we exercised not merely a basic memory recall, but engaged in a form of more extensive story-telling to our surprise and delight. Growing up in separate economic/political paradigms--one communist, the other capitalist--we seemed to nonetheless have similar memories involving anxiety and objects vis-à-vis consumption.
We decided to write a couple of our stories down and then sent them to friends and colleagues on Christmas Day 2010. We invited others to share alike moving forward with the idea that by next Christmas we would send around a wider set as "gifts". We hoped, and continue to hope, that Tales of Consumerist Trauma will offer a refreshing break from the traditional holiday experience of excess...whether binging, bloating, gifting, or family feuding. Enjoy!
Should you wish to share a story, quick anecdote, an image, or a simple sentence please email us. It would be great to hear it, whether signed or anonymous, imagined or real, horrifying or hilarious.
Kristina Lee Podesva
January 7, 2011