5 December 2024
For day 5 of RIELA advent, we have an installation by one of our Affiliate Artists, Christina Kyriakidou. Christina is a multidisciplinary artist whose work focuses on consumer culture and how it interconnects with wastefulness and the constant reproduction and re-invention of our contemporary identities. While Christmas is a time of celebration (both religious and secular), reflection, and/or spirituality for many, it is also undeniably a time of mass consumerism in the Global North. Christina's contribution invites us to consider this, and to think about how we can approach the festive season in a more sustainable way.
The Christmas tree is up, just as consumer culture demands! Have you put yours up yet?
However, this is not just your usual Christmas tree. This is a trash installation that I first put up in December 2017 when I was still an art student exploring themes of overconsumption, waste, and excessive habits during the holidays. The tree is decorated with repurposed Christmas trash and small ceramic sculptures, symbolising the connection between consumerism and waste.
The Christmas market is a perfect example of the superficiality of today’s materialism, long disconnected from the original ‘Christmas spirit'. It is evident that Christmas time has nowadays become a vehicle by which mass production of unnecessary, overpriced goods thrives. Humanitarian principles and morals are being buried under sterile consumerism that is in fact harmful to the environment and ourselves. This time of year amplifies self-indulgence, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and the creation of false needs, as people turn to instant gratification through goods to fill emotional voids in times of uncertainty. Meanwhile, the majority of our western world still remains blissfully oblivious towards ongoing humanitarian crises that are in desperate need of our full attention and resources.
I found Anna the doll several years ago discarded and broken and made her part of this installation. Once sold for £25 and made by workers earning just £5 a day, she was quickly broken and trashed; a poignant symbol of wasteful consumption. She now bears an “honest price” tag, highlighting the disparity behind such products.
[Sources: 'Dark truth of Disney's Frozen fairytale'; 'Santa's Workshop: Inside China's Slave Labour Toy Factories'; 'Slavery in supply chains'.]
Christmas has become a formal holiday centered around excessive consumption. If you don’t buy, eat, drink, or spend extravagantly, you’re seen as an outsider. Having worked in hospitality for years, I have witnessed the dark side of this consumerism and it can feel dehumanising, as if you’re being "consumed" too. Anyone who has worked in a client-facing role during Christmas can probably relate. For me, it's a materialistic celebration that generates unnecessary waste, and thus I chose to represent it with this installation.
Lastly, I value sustainability in all aspects of life; living frugally, without harming, exploiting or annihilating in order to gain more. Life is richer when lived slowly and mindfully, appreciating small, meaningful moments instead of being caught in the grind of constant consumption and distraction. If we must overspend this Christmas, let it be on things that matter: shared experiences and important causes, while we set ourselves free from the hoarder mentality we've been conditioned to.
