PRIE DIEU (PRAYER BENCH)
PRIE DIEU (PRAYER BENCH) 2020 Prayer Bench, Candles, Book.
COMMODIFIED BELIEF SYSTEMS, SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM and the WORSHIP OF FINANCE.
In a year where nothing is the way it was, it's not like the holiday season is any different. Although some are trying to keep things as normal as possible, the incredible amount of financial strife going through the world is even more heightened than past. But the infrastructure of the Western World is so indoctrinated and engrained that it's hard to escape the reality of how much the holidays revolve around consumption. Our friend and founder of Nuart Festival, Martyn Reed, always one with a keen eye on interventionist art and public space, stepped into the limelight (or in this case, a monetary glow) and delivered a new street performance in his homebase of Stavanger, Norway. "With no possibility of a festival and wanting to keep the form on the streets, I got back to producing my own work this year," Reed told us. "It’s a little dig at consumerism and religion during Xmas season, also on finance, surveillance and capitalism in general. The bible has been replaced with Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism." Kneeling at the alter of capitalism with the halo of belief around him, a clever work from Reed.
Photography by Brian Tallman
