TEXT:

Single-Use Account is the exhibition of a new video written and produced by Elizabeth Orr that emulates commercial advertising and is presented here as a multi-channel sculptural installation. Through the seductive visual language of luxury branding, this advertisement promotes a lifestyle imbued with an ideology that stridently values sustainability. The narrative imagines a society that objects to single-use containers and is appalled by their blatant use as marketing tools. As an advertisement, the work analyzes capitalist endeavors that exploit and create revenue connected to ongoing, global environmental disasters. Single-Use Account elaborates on individual and collective psychological phases of sustainability consciousness–our range of emotions and actions over time when faced with choices that define our stance on sustainability. 

Single-Use Account challenges distinctions between capitalist production (the camera operator) and the consumer (the actor). The shadow of a steadicam rig tracking the main character symbolizes the dynamic position of the prosumer (production by consumer) within our current neoliberal economy. In prosumer culture, the objectification of lifestyles (from which a brand’s main financial value is extracted) relies on the collective creation of content and endless aspirations to emulate and embody a brand’s image and ideals. This cycle of production and consumption of desire can shift ideologies and in this way, Orr’s advertisement approaches the limits between promotion and propaganda. However contradictory it may be to a lifestyle brand’s au courant, eco-friendly ethos, the over production and consumption of physical products remains a reality that has a direct impact on the health of the planet. A single-use cup emblazoned with a logo next to its green stamp of recyclability is a prime example of this dissonance between intention and action. The advertisement usurps prosumer logic to signal what collective action against the habits and conveniences of single-use containers could look like in the future. 

Orr has designed components of the installation to be modular and reusable. In doing so she is ensuring that its future presentation, shipping, and use is sustainable. Foldable screens and loaned and refurbished projectors are placed on telescopic stands. Sandbags weigh the entire installation to the floor as a jarring reference to the realities of climate change and the short link between single-use containers, reliance on non-renewable energy, and natural disasters. These utilitarian choices are also in-part a self-reflection. The artist and 1708 are fully aware of how contemporary art exhibitions rely on processes that are inherently wasteful, complicit in the use of disposable materials, and ultimately contributing to pollution in its many forms. In Single-Use Account pairs the cool, seductive visuals of her advertisement with a sober, practical display apparatus to reveal a myriad of touchpoints between free markets, culture, excess, and activism. 

Special Thanks to Micah Angelus, Roberta Colindrez, Emma Hedditch, Nicole Killian, the writings of Naomi Klein, Sky Murray, David Riley, and Lauryn Siegel. 

PROGRAM:

Refillables and Bottle Bills
Elizabeth Orr in Conversation with Dr. Neil Seldman
Friday, June 17, 2022, 1:00 - 2:00 pm
This conversation will stem from core topics explored in Orr’s current exhibition Single-Use Account and focus on refillable packaging and bottle bills–each representing the encouragement of a more sustainable way of living from the consumer industry to governmental policy respectively. This conversation will tease out the various nuances as they cross between advocacy, environmentalism, trends, and contemporary art. Dr. Neil Seldman is a founding member of the National Recycling Coalition at the First National Recycling Congress and the Grass Roots Recycling Network. According to Robin Cannon, Concerned Citizens of South Los Angeles, Dr. Seldman is known as grassroots organizer who, “shows communities how to fight against and how to fight for the sustainable solution to solid waste and economic problems.” In recent years he has worked in Atlanta, Cleveland, Alachua County (Gainesville), FL, Reading, PA, Washington, DC, Bridgeport, CT, Austin, TX and Los Angeles. Dr. Seldman writes regularly for trade journals providing insight and criticism of poorly designed technologies and programs. Dr. Seldman was a manufacturer in New York City and a university lecturer in political science before co-founding the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Beer & Brands Bonus Pour
with Elizabeth Orr and Kelly O'Keefe (video)
Special video conversation with "Single-Use Account" exhibition sponsor, The Brand Federation, and artist Elizabeth Orr about responsibility and sustainability in the branding and advertising fields. In this exciting exchange, both Elizabeth and Kelly look critically at some of the issues raised in Orr’s exhibition "Single-Use Account."