ARTIST: Jeremy Dean

"This satirical film combines elements of pop culture with animated sculptures to explore American consumerism, excess, sustainability and the impending energy crisis. In it we see an imagined future society that destroys itself with excess and greed only to be reborn in a more primitive incarnation yet still continuing on with its excessive consumeristic nature. By deconstructing an American symbol of power and wealth by way of a Cadillac Escalade and a HUMMER H2, it raises questions about the long term consequences of short term decisions and challenges our notion of the American Dream. In the end we see that unless we change our lifestyle and energy consumption, we will be left with a dying planet and with not other transportation option than to hook up our cars to a horse. This idea is based on the little known Hoover Carts of the Great Depression where the excess of the Roaring 20's lead to Americans buying goods on credit, giving rise to consumerism as we know it. However when the stock market crashed in 1929 Americans defaulted on their loans for those items, worsening the Great Depression. The byproduct was that there were many automobiles around but no one could afford basic commodities such as fuel. So the solution in rural communities became to cut the cars in half and attach them to horses. The resulting contraption became known as a Hoover Cart after President Hoover who was blamed for the depression. This video is part of an ongoing body of work where Jeremy is converting an actual HUMMER H2 into a horse cart complete with spinners, a booming sound system and video on the carts multiple DVD screens. The viewer will be invited to sit in the cart watch the video and contemplate our future for themselves:

http://backtothefuturama.blogspot.com/

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