‘The Constantly Moving Happiness Machine’ & ‘Play for Free’ (Installation pair, 2017, ArtOmi)
This was a concept I developed whilst on residency, resulting in an interim pair of rough-and-ready pieces I called ‘Dark Games’. They manifest as participatory games, which the artist seduces the participant into playing.
It was an early formulation of the ideas which subsequently became The Constantly Moving Happiness Machine. It was also my first exploration of some of the complexity around things like socially-engaged art.
The interactor gratifies a desire in participating, but at the same time becomes a tool, unknowingly enacting something more sinister – part of a wider machine, allowing their subconscious to be colonized and utilized. The pieces explore our role – particularly the grey area of consent – as consumers.
The Constantly Moving Happiness Machine
(2017) Ayn Rand Novels, wood, fishing wire, gears and bike chain.
The participant turns the crank and is charmed by the pleasing little blobs jiggling. On closer inspection these appealing organic-like entities are constructed from Ayn Rand texts, which are manifestos for such an extreme level of neoliberal economics, that they arguably verge on sociopathy.
I’m fascinated by the tacit consent we give to our subconscious being manipulated by advertising and PR, shaping us into compliant consumers. In essence, the artist is tricking the participant to take part in a consensual colonization of their subconscious.
Play For Free
(2017) Ayn Rand Novels, mixed leaves, card, glue, wood, magnets, steel
In the second part of the ‘Dark Games’ set, participants are invited to play by knocking over pins with wrecking balls. On closer inspection, the pins are a fragile symbiosis between man and nature, manifested by carefully balanced leaves delicately coaxed into the man-made shape of a cube; whilst the wrecking bricks are the texts of Ayn Rand, a blunt tool whose tenets underpin market fundamentalism. The gratification we receive overrides more careful consideration of consequences that may not be obvious; just as our behaviour as consumers can be a sort of irrational destructive addiction.
Sometimes it’s not all fun and games.
With huge thanks to Adam Curtis