Kretek, krupuk, instant noodles, sneakers – You can eat what you want, better do it in variation & moderation, a mother said. How healthy can mass consumption be, spreading all over a globalizing world?

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Taking a night train from Bandung to Yogyakarta, I joined fellow-artists of the Mutual Unknown project for a research trip in Central-Java. It was my first long train ride and I followed instructions for placing my bags not on the floor but in the racks above our heads. Upon arrival at 3 am, I woke up to get off the train and grabbed my bag to search for some stuff. My bag didn’t have the computer, phone and money anymore, instead there was a heavy plastic bag carrying some kind of magazines. It was a shocking experience to have been stolen from so carefully and it took me a few days before I dared to open the plastic bag. When opening it, I found four health magazines from different years, two Men’s Health and two Women’s Health all in Bahasa Indonesia and quite pricey too! It triggered me to think what health issues in Indonesia are? I noticed that everywhere around me, people smoked, kreteks for older generations and foreign brands for the cool modern youth. During a film screening, the smoke would turn into moving clouds in front of the projector. Wherever on the streets, instant noodles were sold, bought, prepared and eaten, for a snack or for a meal, morning, daytime and during the night. For every meal, big tin boxes or plastic containers with a variety of krupuk, shrimp chips were offered as a crunchy side dish for every meal. A mother once said: “You can eat whatever you like, just do it in variation and moderation, so that it doesn’t impact any part of your body too much.” For me, the health issue is not that smoking or instant noodles or krupuk is bad, but consuming a massive amount of each product can lead to severe health problems. Not consumption & production aren’t the points in questions, mass consumption and mass production are my points of concern. What creates the habit for smoking so much, for eating instant noodles every day, for having krupuk on every meal? A cultural identity, the need of belonging, the craving for comfort?

[masshgrooming] creates a field of mushrooms popping up everywhere and multiplying massively and rapidly. They look pretty and attractive, like colorful flowers you want to pick up to bring home. Living in abundance, we can have all we want and afterwards jog and fitness ourselves into the current image and looks of health again. As consumers, the masses are being groomed to work hard, play hard… more input and more impact is living your life to the fullest. Is it? There surely is variation to be found, but where is the moderation in everything? In times of extremes and extremities, the following expressions have more negative connotations, but should they be considered as no-goes: Being a grey mouse, mediocrity, not acting hands-on, not being sharp, not getting to the point, not being full on, etc. [masshgrooming] explores how fast foods and mass production are sold hand-in-hand with health solutions and wellness, making businesses and everyone with it “run” in this industrialized era.

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MUTUAL UNKNOWN | Curatorslab