My new works are becoming more and more about the pop culture sensibilities I have come to enjoy over the past while. I am quite interested in our fast food/get it quick society and the way it shapes us as people. I am also interested in looking at this culture with a mystical and reverent sense.

What interests me most as a perfect example of modern consumerism is the fast food industry. By creating large scale oil paintings I want to try to blend the mass produced images of popular consumer culture with the unique experience found at a personal level. Mass produced items on an intimate scale.

By using a realistic style of painting I place human figures in locations such as fast food restaurants, convenience stores, beside vending machines, in and around supermarkets and any other places associated with fast food culture. I try to make the figures appear as if they are involved in unexplained or ritualistic activities. By doing this I hope to add to these institutions a sense of the mythical proportions that they play in our lives.

Food is the basis of life and every living creature since the birth of the world centers their life around seeking it out obtaining it. The way in which we acquire our foodstuffs in North America is unlike anything in world history. Since our lives are based around food, doesn't the way we acquire this food now change the very core of our lives.

The important elements I would like to get across about my work is the laying on of a mythical and superstitious outlook on the extremely modern and scientific fast food industry. By examining these themes and looking at them in a mythical way instead of a modern way I hope to create a new and healthy outlook on the way we live. I hope to be a myth-maker for modern consumerism.

Chris Woods

(Statement for Product Placement, an exhibition held at the Diane Farris Gallery in October 1994.)

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