For this edition of Culturalee Innovators, we sit down with Regan Boyce, a London-based multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans sculpture, print and installation. Recently showcasing new work at Park Royal Design District as part of the London Design Festival, Boyce continued to explore the complex narratives of our biosphere.
Through angular, vividly coloured constructions of metal, light and ink, his work transforms industrial materials into abstract reflections on nature and the environment, offering a striking dialogue between the synthetic and the organic.
‘Consume’ strips away the product and leaves only the packaging–a powerful metaphor for modern consumer culture. What drew you to explore the tension between brand and consumer?
We live in a society that surrounds us with consumerism, we cease to be people and become consumers, useful for our ability to spend and spread the word, logos and tags of our favourite brands. I felt it important to recognise that the reason we continue to be swayed by these brands is that they are all visually appealing with aesthetic logos and shopfronts, giving us the ability to label ourselves as ‘belonging’.
All of this led me to question: can a brand be anti-consumerist? Or does it by definition become part of its identity as soon as we label it a brand? Surely the only way to confront these ideas was with a brand itself! “Consume” then stemmed, not as anti-consumerism, but as ironically blatant consumerism where “happiness comes in packaging”.
By turning a shop into a kind of shrine to packaging, your installation invites viewers to confront their own buying habits. What reactions or conversations are you hoping to spark in visitors as they move through the space?
I love talking to people about their relationship with brands and consumerism, we all have one and I am not myself immune, but I do want to initiate people to think about why they’re buying what they’re buying.
The installation is designed to be overwhelming in its repetition but also to contain a sense of playfulness and fun in the aesthetics. I want the audience to be confronted by the outright manipulation of it all.
“Consume” is a bombardment of brand which leads people to question their own trust in ‘the brand’. What does “brand loyalty” mean to them? A phrase that at its core is purely manipulative but attempts to justify some kind of emotional investment. I want us to question how much we invest into toxic one-way relationships where we exchange money and trust with the promise of “more”.
Find out more about Regan Boyce here.
