About

Conspicuous leisure, conspicuous consumption, conspicuous waste; this exhibition and film program draws its name from economist Thorstein Veblen's celebrated monograph, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). In the social and economic system Veblen described, goods, production, and leisure activities are extreme distortions of individual physical, social and emotional needs. Since the democratization of consumption in the twentieth century, links between economics and desire, property and celebrity, visible leisure and detached cool are reinforced across the economic strata of society. The Leisure Class includes film, video and installation works by international and Australian artists who respond strongly to the contemporary packaging of leisure, consumption and lifestyle as social capital and markers of identity.

Media artist Matthieu Laurette's interventions into lifestyle television draw upon Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle (1967). Debord's book and subsequent film pointed to economic revaluing of life as spectacle, an approach similar to contemporary parodies of commercial visual culture by Justine Cooper, Penelope Umbrico, Tony Cokes and David Rosetzky. The real-world effects of sixties-era countercultural critique are thrown into question through the ambiguous final explosion of Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point 1970. In Aernout Mik's Pulverous 2003, conspicuous waste – the flipside of conspicuous consumption – is staged in the quiet destruction of goods in a supermarket stockroom. Taste, emulation and arbitrary value are humorously played out in works by other filmmakers and artists including Pierre Bismuth, Claude Closky, Nathalie Djurberg, Andrea Fraser, Oriana Fox, Lily Hibberd, Christian Jankowski, Rosalind Nashashibi, Marc'O, Grant Stevens, Jacques Tati, Penelope Umbrico and Emile Zile.

List of Works

• Level 2 media gallery and the Australian Cinémathèque, GoMA.
• The Leisure Class: Exhibition
• Zabriskie Point 1970 (excerpt) | Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
• The party 2001 | Artist: Pierre Bismuth
• Thumbs up, thumbs down 1998 | Artist: Claude Closky
• 6^ (from `Pop manifestos' series) 2001 | Artist: Tony Cokes
• 5%(from `Pop manifestos' series) 2001 | Artist: Tony Cokes
• 'Havidol TV spots #1-4' 2007 | Artist: Justine Cooper
• Everyone should be able to live life to its fullest (YEAR) | Artist: Justine Cooper
• I worry less (YEAR) | Artist: Justine Cooper
• I used to wake up feeling great (YEAR) | Artist: Justine Cooper
• Just what I needed (YEAR) | Artist: Justine Cooper
• Society of the Spectacle 1973 | Artist: Guy Debord
• New movements in fashion 2006 | Artist: Nathalie Djurberg
• The embodiment workout 2005 | Artist: Oriana Fox
• Little Frank and his carp 2001 | Artist: Andrea Fraser
• Endless summer 2007 | Artist: Lily Hibberd
• Die jagd (The hunt) 1992/98 | Artist: Christian Jankowski
• Apparitions (Selection 1993-95) 1995 | Artist: Mathieu Laurette
• Apparitions: Money-back products (1996-1997 selection) 1997 | Artist: Mathieu Laurette
• The spectacle is not over 1998 | Artist: Mathieu Laurette
• Apparition: The Today Show, NBC, 31 December 2004 (Guy Debord is so cool!) 2004 | Artist: Mathieu Laurette
• Pulverous 2003 | Artist: Aernout Mik
• Weekender 2001 | Artist: David Rosetzky
• Turtle twilight 2006 | Artist: Grant Stevens
• Your choice 2004 | Artist: Penelope Umbrico
• Suns from Flickr 2006-07 | Artist: Penelope Umbrico
• Larry Emdur's suit 2002 | Artist: Emile Zile
• The Leisure Class: Film Programs
• Zabriskie Point 1970 | Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
• La Société du Spectacle 1973 | Director: Guy Debord
• The Idols (Les Idoles) 1968 | Director: Marc'o
• Midwest 2002 | Director: Rosalind Nashashibi
• Midwest: Field 2002 | Director: Rosalind Nashashibi
• Playtime 1967 | Director: Jacques Tati