CARSON DAVIS BROWN #_MASSNot much gives form to the archetype of American glut and consumerism more than its big box stores – the Walmarts and Targets along highways from coast to coast. Using these super-centers as his workshop for site specific installations, Carson Davis Brown reimagines the redundancy of mass-production and disrupts its quest for sameness. For his MASS SHOW, Brown visits a big box store and sources materials entirely from the its shelves, random except in color, arranging them into a monochromatic sculpture in one of the store’s aisles. With bright geometric layers piled as tall as shoppers – a mass of red or lime green or blue – these installations break the uniformity while creating their own patterns and lines. Shifting the visual landscape, Brown forces shoppers to reevaluate the purpose and necessity of the objects heaped on shelves all around them. Photographing his temporary installation, he then develops his pictures at the superstore’s 1 Hour Photo center and inserts the prints into picture frames sold by the store, which customers can buy for the price marked on the frame. All without permission, and often without being noticed in the vast anonymous space of the store. In collaboration with Lucie Foundation and Month of Photography Los Angeles, Brown’s exhibition of photographs from his MASS SHOWS, #_Mass, is showing at Building Bridges Art Exchange in Santa Monica. His MASS SHOW is also planned for superstore locations around LA, with an announcement of where and when released day-of via Instagram. Where are you from? Carson Davis Brown: Grand Rapids, Michigan. When did you start making art? CDB: Well, my first art course was an art-on-a-cart scenario at Dibble Elementary School.
Not much gives form to the archetype of American glut and consumerism more than its big box stores – the Walmarts and Targets along highways from coast to coast. Using these super-centers as his workshop for site specific installations, Carson Davis Brown reimagines the redundancy of mass-production and disrupts its quest for sameness. For his MASS SHOW, Brown visits a big box store and sources materials entirely from the its shelves, random except in color, arranging them into a monochromatic sculpture in one of the store’s aisles. With bright geometric layers piled as tall as shoppers – a mass of red or lime green or blue – these installations break the uniformity while creating their own patterns and lines. Shifting the visual landscape, Brown forces shoppers to reevaluate the purpose and necessity of the objects heaped on shelves all around them. Photographing his temporary installation, he then develops his pictures at the superstore’s 1 Hour Photo center and inserts the prints into picture frames sold by the store, which customers can buy for the price marked on the frame. All without permission, and often without being noticed in the vast anonymous space of the store. In collaboration with Lucie Foundation and Month of Photography Los Angeles, Brown’s exhibition of photographs from his MASS SHOWS, #_Mass, is showing at Building Bridges Art Exchange in Santa Monica. His MASS SHOW is also planned for superstore locations around LA, with an announcement of where and when released day-of via Instagram. Where are you from? Carson Davis Brown: Grand Rapids, Michigan. When did you start making art? CDB: Well, my first art course was an art-on-a-cart scenario at Dibble Elementary School.
