Advertisements are everywhere. They are on signs, television, and all over the internet. It would be impossible to go a day without seeing an advertisement without dramatically altering your life. Advertisements are also patronizing; they attempt to convince consumers that their life would be more satisfying if they used a particular product. To critique the absurdity of the advertisements and other aspects of the capitalist system, I created Rich Goldworthy. He believes the key to happiness is through wealth and consumerism. Rich is a man who proselytizes materialism at the Fellowship of Emads, a fake cult that teaches people the key to happiness is through wealth and consumerism.
Similar to the idea that anything can be solved with a material good, I wanted to create a product line of protective objects called Domestic Disguises that children can buy to protect themselves from an emotionally abusive parent. When I was a child, I had a hyper-masculine dad. Because of this, I was unallowed to cry or show any emotions other than happiness or anger. When I would cry, my father would say, “Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about!” He never specified what the “something” would be, but I assumed that meant more yelling or possibly hitting. Also while he was yelling at me, he would tell me to “wipe that look off your face” whenever I would make any face other than a blank expression.
I believe that children must be protected from abusive parents. Children are impressionable and deserve the best care. Taking anger out on a child, because a parent lacks the restraint, harms the child emotionally and can create problems for them that last into adulthood. It is my intention that this project will allow others to open-up on emotional abuse by offering dark, whimsical solutions as a remedy to patterns of abuse.
Francis Brogan 