Artist
Coorain

Project Title
Coorain Visual Culture (CooVC for short)

Grant Amount
$2000

Website
www.coorain.com

Coorain will produce Coorain Visual Culture (CooVC for short), an artist’s TV show and accompanying artist book. CooVC will explore where commerce and culture intersect, . Inspired by and possibly spoofing QVC and the Sears catalog, CooVC represents tried and true methods of salesmanship. 

In television and artist book form, CooVC will explore “demonstrative consumers,” all those friendly faces that show us how to consume so well and support America’s consumer economy. These personas- from today’s influencers to yesterday’s door-to-door salesmen, infomercials hosts, TVs domestic goddesses, hucksters, even the “neutral” corporate catalogs from Sears, Ikea, and new this year, Amazon- show us how to consume and participate in consumerism.

The photobook will put Coorain’s photographic work in the context of sales catalogs, like those from Sears, Ikea, and now Amazon, as well as recipe pamphlets, which throughout the 20th century were a common way to advertise new food products, like Jell-o, corn syrup, and vegetable shortening, which were unfamiliar to consumers.