Tarni Anand
Consumption Culture and Its Impact on New York City: Through Excess of Food and Its Waste
Class of: 2029
Major: Communication Design BFA
Medium: A combination of multiple media
Faculty: Juyon Lee
Prompt: An independent, research-based thesis project focused on making connections between the self and the world. Students develop a serial body of work grounded in sustained investigation of a social, visual, cultural, or historical phenomenon relevant to life in New York City. Emphasis is placed on how meaning is constructed through representation–how phenomena are depicted, mediated, and circulated through images, media, and artistic forms. How does this phenomenon reflect the current state of the world? How is it visually constructed, framed, or mediated? What personal connection or resonance emerges through research? How does seriality allow ideas to unfold over time?
For this series of artworks, my main area of focus was to capture the process of overconsumption in New York City. By utilizing food as a literal metaphor in my work, I managed to create three separate products which flow from desire, to illusion and distress of choice and finally our residue. These specific items have almost overtaken New York and can easily be related to the city due to their prevalence in New York City culture. This subject relates immensely to how I experience New York City as youth, and how my “choices” are suddenly becoming standardized without noticing, as well as a lack of true care and knowledge regarding what and why I consume. This intense competition to continuously consume has led to me being often overwhelmed by the sheer thought of exploring the city. Hence, through my work aspire to raise awareness regarding conscious consumerism. Along the way of creating this project, I gained a good command on inDesign, making me more confident in my work, learnt more regarding branding and what works to create a coherent visual in this serialized work.