hira.ware ISSUE 2024.09.03
Dengan nasi ayam menentang
Last weekend, I went to an art auction in KL. It made me think about consumption and hierarchy.
The group of bidders was quite homogenous: businessmen, senior executives, etc. If I have to describe them, I’d say a kind of educated moneyed. There were some young people who came to view the art, but they kept their distance from the auction itself. Perhaps they were uncomfortable, perhaps there was just no point participating in an activity they couldn’t afford anyway.
Of the group of bidders at the auction itself, I’m sure many of them personally enjoyed and appreciated art, but as a group there was definitely an element of social class being expressed. To “collect art” meant being within a social bracket that could afford to pay thousands for a decorative item. Consumption here reflected a social hierarchy based on money.
It was also interesting to see too how, in general, the nicer pieces were more expensive. Most pieces went for RM3,000 to 7,000 but striking ones went for much more, with one piece going for RM200,000. Even within the class of “art collectors” the ability to consume and own the more striking pieces was a reflection of financial means, creating again in-group a hierarchy based on consumption.
I was also struck by the idea of how art itself was being co-opted into reinforcing this hierarchy, a hierarchy based on capitalist values when, if I have to guess, it was created in the opposite spirit.
In our experience with hira, we’ve had the chance to meet artists and creative types. There’s generally a shared value of rejecting the chase for money and status. We often hear sentiments that the chase for money and status feels empty. Perhaps in the most articulate, we hear the sentiment that beauty and expression is a higher, deeper goal anyway.
Many of the artists behind the works on display at the auction would’ve probably echoed the same sentiments. So, it was particularly interesting to see how even if their work was created as a rejection of capitalist values, it was being consumed so as to reflect and reinforce those values.
Capitalism all around us!
Is there anything we can actually do? If we want to reject living life defined by money and status in what we consume, is there a way for us to do so?
I suppose the clearest way would be to not buy based on the hierarchy of consumption. This is not to say that we shouldn’t buy nice things, but to be careful that we shouldn’t get trapped into only consuming expensive things as our incomes increase, that we should not seek to consume to separate ourselves.
Perhaps we should even actively seek out ways to consume which forces us to connect and so challenges hierarchy. I think of the kopitiam and mamak and its extremely democratic nature. Whereas being at the auction created a hierarchy and separated one from the majority of people, being at the kopitiam
connects one and challenges the idea of hierarchy through consumption.
In the face of relentless capitalism, my resistance shall be chicken rice.
Yours truly,
hira ware
Visual credit: Cover artwork is from Khalil Ibrahim's East Coast Series.
