Sydney Collage Society

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'FEEL GOOD, REPEAT' by Nikolaus Dolman

Symbols of Power

SCS member Nikolaus Dolman has a new show opening tomorrow called 'FEEL GOOD, REPEAT' at Firstdraft Gallery in Sydney.

Feel Good, Repeat: an exploration into the Western lifestyle economy and culture.

Consumer stereotyping is based on the idea that people connect ownership with particular products and belonging to a certain social group. Products hold symbolic meaning; brands play a role in determining self-identity.

We process information at a rapid rate, constantly storing and categorising – we engage in collective consumption in order to gain social acceptance. The impression we want to reflect upon others is influenced by the collected ideals squeezed from constant engagement and the proliferation of platforms. The imagery is infinite. The demand is high.
Feel Good Repeat is a deconstruction of compositions from commercial materials that subvert the obsessions and repetition of advertising. This ongoing investigation explores and questions the Western lifestyle economy and culture by drawing on the conventions of contemporary mass media.

The shop front window display is idealistic, influencing and determining a stereotype by its seductive nature. Feel Good, Repeat destabilises these structural patterns, imitative desires and fictional realities and draws attention to our current systems of social identity.

By adopting metaphors of mainstream representation the work analyses the aspirations of contemporary living within its multiplicity of excessive information. Using familiar surfaces and the manipulation of imagery to explore such obsessive and repetitive qualities involved with our image in the public realm.

See you at the show! More details here