Thomas Hirschhorn on Hyperconsumption and Resistance

In a recent interview, the contemporary Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn posed a challenge for himself, one which his recent works Das Auge (The Eye) (2008, 2011) and Crystal of Resistance (2011) seem to meet with relentless vigour. The challenge was presented in the form of a question, which read: “Am I able to give a form which goes beyond [the] usual facts and criticism of consumption?”1 1  - Abraham Cruzvillegas, “Thomas Hirschhorn,” BOMB 113 (Fall 2010). Though the challenge was directed at Hirschhorn’s past work, it outlines concerns that he continues to revisit. In Western society, the “usual facts” of consumption seem to include only material, as opposed to immaterial, elements. These material elements are further reduced to the inorganic, evidenced in society’s focus on consumer goods, rather than consumer consciousnesses. Consumption is typically considered as the use, exhaustion, and disposal of these basic, often mass-produced goods. The correlated criticism of consumption that arises in conventional discourse subsequently limits its critique to the overconsumption of these goods and the waste that is produced.

Hirschhorn’s criticism extends beyond these conventional perspectives through a focus which widens to include the consumption of both the inorganic and the organic, considering both human and non-human bodies, as well as the hyperconsumption of the immaterial, which includes accounts and stories of human crises. This shift is communicated through the text and materials used in his large, immersive installations. To be clear, although installation is the accepted term for the type of art that Hirschhorn is most well known for, it is one that he is actually opposed to. He prefers to refer to his exhibitions as “displays,” favouring the political and commercial references that this invokes.² 2 - Claire Bishop, Installation Art (London: Tate Publishing, 2005), 123. This political/commercial perspective was clear, though chaotic and haphazardly constructed, throughout Das Auge.