According to the Environmental Protection Agency website, Americans generate 250 million tons of trash a year - the equivalent of 4.43 pounds person per day.  (Source: http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/) Of that 250 million tons, 85 million tons are recycled.

The University of Arizona Museum of Art features two artists, whose works react to and comment on these astounding statistics and the American perchance to consumerism.  The artists use different approaches to get viewers to stop and think about their everyday actions. Matt Eskuche’s medium of choice is glass, while Matthais Düwel’s vehicle of commentary is painting.

Matt Eskuche comments by recreating mass-produced soda bottles, fast food packaging and other “trash,”using flameworked glass.  Playing off the original psychology and desirability of package design, Eskuche’s painstaking glass reconstructions challenge the viewer to reconsider consumption.   Featured in the exhibition is Eskuche’s installation, Agristocracy, an experience that the ThirdCoast Digest called “Mind Shattering.”  The installation was made possible through grants from the Arizona Glass Alliance and the Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass.

Eskuche comments:

the trash glass i've been making for the past few years is culled from several of my sensibilities. by creating these objects of mass production by hand, using craft and art traditions, i express a futility in the end product... "why would someone spend all that time making the same trash that you could just pick up in the street?"

some of my interest lies with taking a realistic look at the products we consume and how that effects economies, environments, and land and humanitarian rights.

another factor has to do with confronting planned obsolescence, ultra-convenience,  and the ineffectual ways we generate and dispose of capitalism's vast wastefulness. (Source: http://matteskuche.com/home.html)

In contrast,  Matthias Düwel’s paintings and works on paper explore how suburban sprawl, over-abundance and capitalistic greed lead to disaster.  Düwel states: “My work has always been a direct response to my environment.  When I moved in 2004 from NYC to the Tucson Area, I became acutely aware of the phenomenon of [suburban] ‘Development’” and the multitudes of repetitive houses.  The move to Tucson shifted Düwel’s focus away from “the decay of urban environment to the destruction of nature.”  Düwel comments on the overwhelming quantities of materials, noting that the drive to control one’s personal environment results only in an illusion of stability.

Consumer Consumption will open with a reception on January 26th at 5 pm.  Join Matt Eskushe on Saturday, January 28th for a 2 pm talk about studio glass and his work.  Matthias Düwel will discuss his work on April 21, at 2 pm in the UAMA galleries.

Exhibition Dates:  January 26 – April 22, 2012

Opening Reception - Thursday, January 26, 2012   5 pm