Jenna Pierce

2021 Senior Exhibition Artists

Jenna Pierce

Art + Design: Photography

About Jenna Pierce

Jenna Pierce is a photographer who will have her BFA in photography from the College of Visual andPerforming Arts at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth.She is interested in photographing things around her and her environment. Jenna is an adventurous person and enjoys traveling. In this project she wanted to explore the ideas of panic consumption and how the Coronavirus has impacted us.

Statement

“By March 23, 2020, toilet paper was out of stock at 70% of U.S grocery stores (including online sellers).” March 2020 marked the beginning of the pandemic. The fact that the US was close to being out of stock of toilet paper that early just shows how the American “panic consumption” started.Within the past year our lives have changed drastically and we have become adjusted to a new normal.The new normal includes an overwhelming desire to acquire a surplus of what are deemed essential items and an excessive amount of products bought in bulk, often stored in garages or sheds. It is accepting this new routine of wearing a mask everywhere we go and having to wash your hands constantly. Protecting ourselves from this pandemic is our life now. I found the following quote: “You can never have enough of what you don’t need”. During this pandemic people were always ordering things, and this was a way to project their own desires to be in a die rent situation. During this pandemic people have been ordering an exorbitant amount of things, “36% of consumers now shop online weekly, an increase from 28% before the pandemic”,both that considered essential as well as not, and this seems to be a way to project their own desires to be in a die rent situation. Life now has completely changed the way people consume essential items and the way we live day by day. I wanted to use products that are familiar with such as paper towels, toilet paper, masks, gloves, and plastic cups.Along the way, I started to create mini still lives that would ultimately represent home to me. These other images help the viewer to relate to the other ones since these items form more of a connection than it being an item used regularly.

My intention for this project is to show the idea of panic consumption and how it controls the way we live now in particular. I wanted these products to be viewed in a way that they normally aren’t seen.