Objects of desire rebirth of the arcades : observations and explorations of the commodity fetish

Objects of Desire observes the commodity fetish in art and non-art contexts and examines the performative element of spectatorship and its relationship to both art and consumption. The project seeks an understanding of how notions of commodity fetishism and desire can be used to refigure patterns of audience interaction and engagement in the visual arts. Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project provides the inspiration and focus in my quest to "awaken" audiences from the collective consumer dream, and my art practice incorporates the disjunctions and humour celebrated in the collage and détournement works from Surrealism. My research on commodity examines the social and psychological perspectives of audience behaviour in consumer and art spaces to determine the distinctions between real and actual audiences, and art and non-art contexts. I discuss the mechanics of fetishisation and identify the tensions and collaborations between art and consumerism. Through a series of interactive and site-specific installations, my artworks investigate and build on methods to activate spectatorship and decentre audiences. Objects of Desire explores the dialectics of subject, materials and site, and poetic modes of production to engage knowing and unknowing audiences in an act of desire, and facilitates performance in the collusion of commodity fetishism in the spectacle, known as the visual arts