Jared Mimm – Artist Statement

My work is an ongoing response to heedless consumption and the distance that it creates both from one another and from our self.  Consumption can be in the form of consumer goods, entertainment, online trends, high technologies, social media, the news or anything else that draws attention to itself as an end, taking someone away from knowing who they are or developing who they could be.  Different agencies have their own angles but the ultimate goal is to vie for attention and coax individuals into the self-perpetuating belief system; you need more in order to make yourself better and feel satisfied.  Society has shifted away from traditional ways of establishing a sense of self through family, community and religion and moved to the process of identifying oneself with what we have, what we use, what we wear and even what we post or “like” online.  What is popular or fashionable will always change leading one to constantly expend time and resources trying to keep up with who they think they should be, as influenced by such things as, seductive marketing, whimsical fads, celebrity personalities, and the top viewed content of commercial or state-run media outlets.  The vast majority of people do not look like or have a life resembling that which is fabricated in advertisements and entertainment.  This disparity with reality creates discontent that is often mediated superficially with more consumption.

I create art in hopes of allowing the viewer to step away from such hollow preoccupations, and start on a path to somewhere more thoughtful and potentially poetic than where an endless cycle of consumption leads.  In my work, I avoid the mindset of giving an easy, on-demand answer because I find it both more effective and meaningful to map out or give guidelines for how someone can come to an idea indirectly, with their own personal discoveries along the way.  Much of my art incorporates accessible elements from our everyday life that are familiar to the point of being mundane or taken for granted.  I take these familiar elements and tweak or repurpose them into unlikely forms and situations that challenge the viewer to shift their preconceptions and uncover new lines of inquiry for themselves.  Finding the things that move us to delve deeper and more passionately into a topic better illuminates who we are.