PARTY’S OVER – STARTS OVER – Scott Townsend

This work is highly “affective” regarding the subject of debt. One of the issues with this year’s theme is to show the actual violence the global economy has created, and how various international economic strategies are being put in place, that (for the sake of “recovery”) will subordinate less economically powerful regions.

The combination of photography, use of scale and objects combines to create a sense of presence of the subject matter and an absence of the portrayed people, which is really very strong. It successfully uses real objects and materials in way that places the viewer literally in the physical point of view of the portrayed and absent individuals in the photographs.

I am curious about how social dialogue was formed around this installation, and if there were interactions in the space between the author and the viewers. The particular reading in the maker’s description is quite rich and helps open up discussions about particular implications in the work