InfoGoop
Alternative medicines and supplements
This is the last artwork I made before I left my old studio in Ridgewood, Queens. It was probably a wise choice because having a giant table of alternative health products and medicines might contaminate my living space.
The title of these works comes from an article published in Quartz by Nikhil Sonnad, All the Wellness Products Americans Love to Buy are Sold on Both InfoWars and Goop, which has long been a source of inspiration for my work. Alternative medicines and supplements such as Ashwagndha, Bacopa, Chaga mushroom, Colloidal silver, Cordyceps, Eleuthero root, Eyebright herb, Maca root, Nascent iodine, Reishi mushrooms, Selenium, Shilajit, Zizyphus and many more can be found on either site. Additional products like charcoal water filters, red light therapy machines, and seasonal affective lights are frequently featured as well. I spoke about this project on a recent podcast — you can listen to the episode here.
On an old Twitch stream, I had the (regrettable) idea to grind up InfoWars’ Brainforce pills and Goop’s Why Am I So ‘Effin Tired? and to reseal them as a new supplement we jokingly referred to as “InfoGoop”. I say regrettable because the following morning I took one of these pills and felt horrible the entire next day. Both Brainforce and Why Am I So ‘Effin Tired? contain the active ingredient Bacopa, an herb commonly used in Ayurvedic medicine, which enhances memory and brain function alongside a variety of other miscellaneous and mostly intangible benefits.
Exploring these spaces of unexpected consensus within our hyper-polarized landscape has been a reoccurring theme in my work and research for several years. Part of this includes auto-experiments, testing the truth claims of these supplements by simply taking them and reporting back the effects. At this point, I’ve taken all of the ingredients in these photographs at least once. Nothing has made such a lasting impact that I take it habitually. Some I didn’t notice at all. In my experience, good diet and exercise will get you 90% of the way there and the last 10% is an unknown that is unique to you. The one thing I know to be true (for sure) is that Gwyneth Paltrow needs to stop spreading such hideous disinformation online and Alex Jones should be held accountable for selling that overpriced skincare routine.
In 2015, while I was collaborating with Brad Troemel on UV Production House, we observed a bizarre trend on Pinterest. Alternative health recipes would be posted by seemingly disparate ends of the political spectrum. Items like solar panels and home gardens could be found in the bizarre overlap between doomsday preppers and ethical consumers. Beneath their branded exteriors lies a shared material politics of hyper-individualism and self-sufficiency. In either worldview, the possibility for optimism and collective action is totally foreclosed. Each group anticipates a financial, environmental or social catastrophe. In preparation for the inevitable crisis, consumers may choose to respond with self care and composting or by stockpiling arms and dried goods in an underground bunker. While these groups may have different consumer preferences and different cultural narratives, both divorced dads and yoga moms agree that each individual is responsible for the fate of the world.
I painstakingly shot this series of photographs under careful studio lighting and the subtle illumination of red light therapy. Each item appears on both the InfoWars and Goop online stores. The materials themselves are perishable, so I’ve chosen to photographically preserve them in ultra-high resolution and life-size scale.
The construction of truth is at the core of the medium of photography. This 20th century technology now finds an odd parallel with today’s digital environment of increasing untrustworthy images and information. These photographs are an invitation to shake off our old assumptions and to unmask the consumer identities that are sold to us as political programs.