BOTTLED EMOTIONS

 

52"H x 48"W x 4"D
48 Sandblasted & acid etched wine bottles with original text.

4 brushed aluminum shelves. $5,000 + Shipping.

 

Each bottle's warning label reads: 

WARNING: DO NOT OPEN!
CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE.
KEEP SEALED AT ALL TIMES.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Containerization has revolutionized the transport of commodities . . .”  So begins a public information display on the Washington State ferry system.  As a society, we have gradually moved more and more toward packaging and marketing anything needed in our lives. Even our fruits and vegetables are stamped, barcoded and labeled with appropriate warnings to keep us safe from ourselves. 

 

Bottled Emotions calls attention to the way societies and families force individuals to  keep feelings — both good and bad — pent up inside.  Fears, insecurity, peer pressure, societal roles and the enforced patterns of upbringing all work to prevent us from enjoying and expressing the vast range of emotions that humans experience day to day and minute by minute. 

 

This piece also speaks to the way that advertisers manufacture and promote emotions to consumers.  We buy a new truck and also get PRIDE, buy a cologne and get PASSION, reach for the dishwashing soap and get JOY.  Emotions themselves have become consumable commodities.

 

In presenting 48 of our varied human emotions — each displayed, bottled, and labeled with a warning — I aim to present to the viewer the complex diversity of who we are, and the sheer overwhelming impossibility of trying to keep ourselves “bottled up.”

 

                                                                                -- Jeff Crandall