Obsessive Consumption
An Interview with Kate Bingaman-Burt
What did you buy today? A pack of gum, a gallon of milk, a magazine? Where did it originate? How did it get on the shelf? These are the questions that artist Kate Bingaman-Burt asks herself on a regular basis through her website, Obsessive Consumption, where she illustrates her daily purchases.
Bingaman-Burt's wildly clever and simple illustrations raise complex questions about origination, consumption, and habits. While her work won't answer the questions for you, she hopes it will make you think a little more about that last bottle of Kraft Fat-Free Ranch Dressing you bought. (Kate bought some on October 23rd for $2.49.)
TDS: How did Obsessive Consumption start?
BINGAMAN-BURT: In my early 20s I was an art director for a gift company in Omaha, Nebraska. Part of my duties, along with designing packaging and the look and feel of their products, was to attend gift shows. I was really focused on consumer trends and why people would buy what they would buy and how I could design to tap into these purchasing habits.
I eventually went to graduate school to explore some of these questions but in a more personal way.
For a while (and I still am, in a way) I really wanted to know the history of found objects and thrift store items and I was becoming frustrated because I couldn't find these answers. So I started to document all of my purchases because at least then I would know the origins. This eventually turned into Obsessive Consumption and I started to make objects and consumable goods about my own consumerism.
Obsessive Consumption takes a lot of forms - photo documentation, object making, installation and now, most recently LOTS of drawing. I have always been all over the place as far as the mediums that I work in, so working under the umbrella of Obsessive Consumption is really good for me. I have set up a system that allows me to be all over the place. I keep thinking that I will get sick of this, but my list of things that I want to do is so long. But, right now I am in my "all drawing all the time" phase.
TDS: Your tagline, of sorts, is ”consume/document/make.” Would you elaborate?
BINGAMAN-BURT: Almost everything that I make is something that revolves around personal consumerism. I work within a lot of mediums but these three words are a super simplified process statement. I consume, write it down and then make something from the experience. This can apply to drawing, photography, installation or even sewing a dress.
TDS: Do you have a rubric that helps you determine what you do and do not consume?
BINGAMAN-BURT: I wish! I wish I had this awesome, elaborate rubric that determined what I should buy and when, but I don't. I tend to have pretty common purchasing habits and actually try to stick to a budget. I like the idea of a rubric... perhaps I will draw one in the future!
TDS: Is drawing your purchases or credit card statements therapeutic?
BINGAMAN-BURT: Yeah, it is. The credit card drawings were started because I felt like I had screwed up. I started drawing my statements shortly after I had finished graduate school and started teaching as an assistant professor of graphic design. The bubble of school had burst and I had a lot of debt. I don't like to fail and looking at my pile of statements in my school office I had felt like I failed. I was staring at my statements and because I didn't know what else to do at that moment, I started to draw one. I then decided that I was going to draw all of them until I paid them off. Four years later I am pretty close to being finished.
I certainly get more pleasure out of my daily purchase drawings. I get lost in patterns, simple lines and typography. Sometimes I spend longer drawing the purchase than I actually spend using the purchase. I like that.
TDS: Do you find interest in other items that aren’t purchased?
BINGAMAN-BURT: Oh sure, 1960's illustration (Saul Steinberg, M. Sasek), bits and pieces of found ephemera, old photos, letters, gossip blogs, reality tv, creative couples (Ray and Charles Eames, Robin and Lucienne Day), Joseph Beuys, Fluxus, Situationism, teaching, objects that look like a designer didn't design them, walls of sound, thrift stores, yard sales, big box stores, DIY, craft as activism and vernacular type.
TDS: What do you hope people see (or what questions do you hope they ask) about themselves (or their own consumption) as a result of looking at your consumption and work?
BINGAMAN-BURT: My work raises questions and it doesn't really provide answers to broader American consumption issues. I focus more on the mundane aspects of personal consumerism. I don't really rally against consumerism and I have been pretty lucky for my work to both appeal to those who subscribe to an anti-consumerist agenda and also to the teenage kid who loves shopping at the mall. I like that I can have a conversation with both. I don't want to preach, I just want people to think and have fun while they are doing it.
I love hearing from people who tell me that they are so much more aware of their purchases after they have been to my site or picked up my zine. Or, that they look at their pack of gum differently simply because they saw a drawing that I did of my Orbit gum that I bought the other day. I like it that people can think about their own consumerism by looking at my consumerism.
TDS: When speaking about your work in an email to us you mentioned, “the consumer is no longer faceless.” How is the consumer faceless and how does your work change that?
BINGAMAN-BURT: I suppose when I say that I am really talking about bringing an aspect of humor or a bit of personality to a generic event such as buying milk. I like to think that I am making souvenirs out of my mundane milk transaction at Walgreens by drawing it.
No one really needs an Obsessive Consumption product, but I hope that the viewer will connect with the process and concept that they would want a part (and ultimately be a part) of what I am doing. I like the cyclical nature. The products are aware of their lack of necessity.
TDS: What should we be on the look out for with regard to you and your work?
BINGAMAN-BURT: I just signed a contract with Princeton Architectural Press and they will be publishing a book filled with my daily drawings (650!) in March of 2010. I have a few group shows and speaking engagements in 2009 and will be yammering on and on at the 2009 How Design Conference in Austin about Craftivisim. I also have a solo show at The Paperboat Gallery in Milwaukee in the Fall. So, mostly I will be teaching, freelancing (this month I have a bunch of illustrations in Ready-Made Magazine), working on my book and thinking about new installations and objects to make. I love it. I love working the way that I work. I am really lucky.
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