desires not even our own
Have you ever bought something because of the packaging? And what did that packaging sell you other than the product? Or have you gone through your clothes closet and wondered, “What possessed me to buy this?” or, “Where did I think I was going to wear that?” We often are not purchasing a product but an image of ourselves, a hope, a goal. There is a different kind of need being met when we buy. I am amazed at how deeply marketing messages are embedded in my own psyche and how easily they seem to shape us and our desires.
Desires not even our own is a temporary public art project located at 405 Centre Street in Hyde Square, Boston. This project is an attempt to create the inverse of a fast, compulsive consumer cycle through a quietly disruptive deconstructing slowness, creating a space which propagates empathy through observation, knowledge, and making.
Desires not even our own looks at how our own disconnection to ourselves, our needs, and our wants affects the lives of others—specifically, the workers who labor in unfair and dangerous situations--and how our environment is being devastated through overuse of natural resources, pollution, and waste created from our over-production and over-purchasing.
It begins with the thoughtful processing of one ton of used clothing, folding, unknitting and unstitching; bringing the garments back to their smallest parts; acknowledging the hands that made the garments and the resources used. The desires not even our own shop will then be open to the public, offering an in-depth look at the layered and interlocking problem of American consumer behavior and culture, and also--so we do not despair--simple gestures one can begin to do to break the consumer cycle.
Humans have a fundamental worth aside from what they project, purchase, or produce. It is my hope that this project will remind us of this.
a special thanks for funding and support from:
and a great team
Anela Oh, Kate Wildman, Muriel Horvath, Emma Scott, Megan L’Etoile, Erica Imoisi, Sophia Rosselli, Perla Mabel Ledesma, Anita Adiukwu, Taylor Axtmann, Brick Chapman, Deborah Bernard, Sue Murad, Faith Johnson
desires not even our own © 2022