Exhibition TBT: ‘Generational Wealth’ — A review
I hope everyone is well and staying safe during lockdown. As the sun teases us while we’re at home, I’ve been reminicing about the not so distance past. My solo trip to Copenhagen in Denmark popped into my head — taking me back to October 2019…
Two days in and I felt comfortable navigating around the city on foot and by metro. It was time to venture out a little and head out a bit further from the inner city zones. After having a really interesting chat about politics and history with my roomies, we decided to check out Louisiana Museum of Modern Art the next day.
In Copenhagen, lots of museums stay open quite late (around 9/10pm) which is great when trying to fit in loads of activities during a day. We arrived around 6pm and stayed until closing time but this was not enough time to go around properly. This museum is huge so if you want time to go around, I’d say half a day is a good start. I’m going to focus on on Lauren Greenfield’s Generational Wealth exhibition.
A bit of background — Lauren Greenfield is a photographer and filmmaker who has documented stories on youth culture, material culture, wealth and beauty to say the least. In this groundbreaking exhibition, Greenfield used photography and documentary filmmaking to explored the impact of materialism in today’s society around the world. Greenfield focused on:
- Beauty standards
- Peer pressure for teenagers living in Hollywood
- Image, nightlife and success
- The ramifications of the 2008 financial crisis in four countries
- Wealth accumulation in Russia and China as communist states
For me, the Generational Wealth exhibition provoked a lot of thoughts about consumer culture and the impact this has on humans and the Earth.
Split into several sections, Greenfield attempts to understand the effect of material culture in different contexts. For 25 years, Greenfield has captured moments of this conversation through photography and documentary filmmaking. The exhibitions starts with scenes from LA, where teenagers from different areas of the city caption their experience about growing up here, such as :
- Having access or little access to wealth from parents
- Aspirations for access to wealth
- The prestige of having wealth
- The impact of wealth on wellbeing
Take a look at the captions of the images below. I found these comments highlighted that proximity to wealth has diverse perceptions depending on whose point of view is being considered.
The section, I buy, therefore I am focuses on the pressures of consumer culture and beauty standards on our lives. On one hand, some people interviewed by Greenfield understand their contribution to upholding consumer culture. Yet, it becomes clear that there are pressures which explain why this culture is maintained. Such as peer pressure experienced by teens in schools to look and dress a certain way.
The role of beauty standards comes to mind here, which history has shown, has a strong link to consumer culture. Take corsets for example, which were popular in the 19th century. More recently, waist trainers have been advocated to achieve a ‘slim thick’ body type. Hence, beauty ideas has been a longstanding pressure facing generations of young people. But also in more subtle ways as we become adults. Meaning, this pressure potentially has a wider impact. What immediately comes to mind is how this pressure could affect families? Or influence career options? And how much money is needed to sustain this lifestyle?
Greenfield poses this question in her 2015 photo essay and and film Make it Rain. Centred at Magic City in Atlanta, Greenfield interviews people in the music industry about ‘making it’. Image, prestige and a strip club has become almost a blueprint for ‘success’. Future made his breakthrough here and explains how his dream of fame and money became a reality. Tiffany Master’s, crowned ‘Queen of Las Vegas Nightlife’had similar dreams but shares a different view point. Tiffany manages a team who curate VIP experiences for big spenders. But Tiffany finds this work tiring, with little authenticity and warns that you ‘should be careful what you wish for’.
Speaking of money — who remembers the financial crisis of 2008? Greenfield used this recent history to explore how the accumulation of wealth was pursued. America, Ireland, Iceland and Dubai were Greenfield’s case studies. What was really interesting, was what happened afterwards in each of these countries. Over 10 years has passed since the crash and the world has changed. During this time has the global economy become more or less stable?Especially when thinking about the financial insecurity the world is currently facing due to the Covid pandemic.
Weirdly enough, a lot of the topics covered by Greenfield has been re-emphasised because of Covid-19. You don’t have to dig too deep to find news stories about the shift in consumerism, from fights over toilet roll to hoarding of food. I’m interested in seeing if consumer behaviour continues to change rapidly during this time of uncertainty. And more importantly, what consumerism will look like post-lockdown? What are your thoughts on this?
