RACHEL PIMM
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CONTACT · PORTFOLIO OF SELECTED PROJECTS ·
A BACK CATALOGUE OF IDEAS AND INFLUENCES
Shopping is an everyday cultural act; it is inevitable, taken for granted. Entering into the world of shopping – the world of shopping malls – can be a Dantean voyage into hell or a redeeming ceremony of Communion. Everyone is familiar with this experience and knows what a mall looks like. This self-evident phenomenon is, however, the result of a highly complex process. The designing of shopping malls is overseen by an army of planners, managers and scientists: there are consultants, re-launch analysts, and a central association, mall magazines. 6000 guests and laboratories attended an annual convention in Las Vegas at which such questions were investigated as where the gaze of a customer falls and how a “spontaneous” purchase can be induced. Farocki shows how mall producers look at malls when they want to find out, for example, how passers-by move, where they stop and where they reach for an article. He adds these images to the everyday ones – and gives them a magical charge. —farocki-film.de
Untitled (Conran’s I), 8x10”, C-print,1992-93, Art Club 2000 at Between Bridges 11/2007- 01/2008
