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CraftJoint Interview: Kate Bingaman
Happy Be-lated Birthday! I see that you had a birthday on August 12.
Yay! Did you do anything special?
Well, I turned 28 (the year that my mom was when she had me which is kind of strange)...My gentleman friend Clifton got me a year subscription to Media Temple so I can start rebuilding my site (big plans, big plans) and eventually move my service over to MT. SO EXCITING to all of the viewers of Craft Joint, I am sure, but I am nerd and I thought this gift was R to the A to the
D.
My english professor always told us to turn our crap detectors on and to never turn them off.
I love the concept of Obsessive Consumption. You express American
retail mentality dead-on. What made you start this project?
Looking back I have always been obsessed with business and shopping and making.
I was a graphic designer for a gift company in omaha, nebraska and basically we created lots of things that people wanted to buy but
really didn't need. At All. Gift food, candles, potpourri etc etc. It was all about trying to figure out how to get the customer to lust after something that was totally not necessary. Along with being a graphic designer I was also a sales rep for the company and would travel around the country to different trade shows in chicago, San Francisco, New York, Dallas etc. The customers were all store owners ranging from mom and pop shops to buyers for crate and barrel. It was just amazing to see what people bought. What was hot what was not. Why people wanted a certain item on season and not the next. All of these ideas would float around in my head and I knew that I had to do something with it. So I quit my job and went to grad school where I became obsessed with trying to find out the history of objects...so I decided to focus on myself and start documenting all of my purchases and then creating a brand out of it. That is how Obsessive Consumption started. It just seems like I get more and more ideas everyday that still fit into Obsessive Consumption. Ideas that I want to explore and I am just so excited to keep working!
I hate credit and I do my best to avoid it. By the same token, it's almost completely inevitable to acquire it at some point. How do you view debt and credit?
I hate credit too, but if I had never used my credit cards I would have never gone to graduate school. I had to use credit (eventually be in debt) to open these doors for myself. I can sit around and feel guilty about poor spending choices, but I keep
reminding myself that my debt (though a lot bigger than I would like it to be) really helped me actualize my ideas. Still, I think credit cards are evil and a lot of what they do with APR, late fees etc should be illegal. My 20 year old little sister doesn't have a credit card and I am so proud of her. When I was her age I was sucked into various store cards with ridiculous APR's and had no idea that I was on the road to wrecking a credit score. I strongly believe that credit card education should happen in high schools, in colleges. Consumer education. Young girls really do get sucked into believing that a plastic card will make their life better. This is more than just a lack of consumer education...this also deals with how much celebrity and material culture drives people's lifestyles...esp. young girls. Wanting STUFF and getting STUFF makes a lot of people feel good. It fills voids temporarily. A lot of the times my design classes turn into credit counseling sessions with some of my female students. They want
to know what APR means, what a credit score is, why they shouldn't have a card from the gap, banana republic, the limited etc etc etc. I don't have any student loans, but sometimes I do wish that I could swap my credit card debt with student loans. It is hard to pay down debt. really really hard. So many emotions are connected with money. Shame, guilt, embarrassment and sadness...and everyone feels this when they owe people money. Everyone.
So, who do you owe?
I owe six different credit card companies about $20,000 bucks. I got my first store card (I think it was from groady maurices or
something like that) when I was 18. That was quickly followed with a Dillard's card, Gap etc etc (the gateway cards)...now I owe Chase, Usaa, Juniper, Mbna, First National Omaha and Target (the gateway cards led to the harder stuff :)
What have you learned through Obsessive Consumption, the art?
Oh, I am still learning every day through my artwork. Right now I really like being done with documenting my purchases. I am happy to move on from that phase. It would have been easy to have stayed doing it, but I wouldn't have been happy. Right now I have been reading a lot of Marshall McLuhan reading more about the situationists, loving the concept of craftivism (check out www.craftivism.com). I learned and am still learning everyday about how wonderful the internet is as a communication tool. It isn't about technology, it is about communication. I just want to keep on making work. I don't ever want to stop.
Is there a solution to obsessive consumption?
For me? no. I love obsessive consumption. I don't want a solution...then I would be done making artwork. Bring on the grossness of consumer culture. The funniness. The ridiculousness. The insanity. I love it all.
Your work spaces are incredibly inspiring. You are the first to be profiled at Craft Joint's Your Space because I couldn't get enough of your sweet, sweet digs. Where does it all come from?
I have to surround myself with things that I love. Things that inspire me. Most items come from thrift stores. A coat of paint does wonders too. I was really fortunate to have a great space in grad school. My office at mississippi state is more of a dumping ground for my students projects mixed with a sea of paperwork from various meetings...but I still love it. I just got a new studio on campus and I am enjoying making it my own right now. I love moving and I love change and I love making new spaces for myself.
How do you view pop-culture?
I love it. I hate it. There has to be a balance. If all you read is InTouch and Us Weekly, then you don't have a balance. Be aware of everything, not just Brad, Jen, Ben, Britiney, K-Fed etc etc. My english professor always told us to turn our crap detectors on and to never turn them off. Just turn your crap detectors on.
I like the image on the front page of your site. I really want to roll in that pile of pillows for some reason and I can only imagine that comes from a place within that has been sub-consciously fed the message that greed is okay or maybe it comes from a place that says piles of pillows are comfy! What's really the concept behind them?
All my work is pretty snarky/sarcastic/tongue firmly planted in cheek etc. and I have this pesky habit of always needing my work to be more than just cute too. The dollar sign pillow is just giving permission to love your money, greed, etc. Love it like a stuffed animal. Sleep with it. Rest your head on it. Just over the top goofiness. I love over the top goofiness. I love over the top imagery and over the top subject matter. Love it.
How long have you been making art?
Well I think I have always been making things...I don't know when I started doing it seriously...though I feel like I have been busting my ass and loving it for the past five years or so. My parents were both weavers when I was growing up and they would travel around the country selling their silk tapestries at different art fairs. I would tag along with them and just absolutely
love it, but I never intended on being an artist. I was dead set on becoming a broadcast journalist my first couple of years of college and then I took a graphic design class and my mind was blown. That was it. I worked as a graphic designer after college for a few years and kept on thinking that I needed to be doing more. That I needed to be making work for myself and so I entered graduate school. I got my MFA in 2004 and really during those three years my work focused and I stopped thinking of myself some one who only wanted to make graphic design, but as someone who just always wanted to make dope shit no matter what media I had to use. Okay, I am talking too much. Will save some of this for later.
More about Kate Bingaman Kate Bingaman is an assistant professor of graphic design at Mississippi State. Her guilty pleasure is VH1 Celebreality. Her favorite accent is a ridiculous British accent or perhaps even an over-the-top Cockney. Please support her work and take a gander at her newer, even more lovely web site: www.obsessiveconsumption.com
