CatForster.com - Installation

Shopping Bag and The Making of a McGuffin

There are three acts to this installation.

Part 1: Shopping Bag
“Shopping Bag” is the installation of a video object that explores issues of excess; the never ending desire for more things; store as home away from home, as social setting and community. In the installation a shopping bag sits on a table, open for viewers to peer inside. In the interior of the bag is a video of a mall and multiple stores; a 5 min loop of a mall walk and browsing spree.

Click on images to view sample of video

Part 2: The Making of a McGuffin
A McGuffin (sometimes MacGuffin or Maguffin) is a device or plot element that catches the viewer’s attention or drives the plot. It is generally something that every character is concerned with. The McGuffin is essentially something that the entire story is built around and yet has no real relevance. The term "McGuffin" was invented by writer Angus McPhail, but developed by Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock built some of his most suspenseful films around ‘The McGuffin’, which was, in effect, nothing. The briefcase in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction is probably the most obvious contemporary McGuffin. The contents are never shown. When the briefcase is opened, we do not see its contents, only a yellow glow coming from the case.

The Making of a McGuffin is both a homage to Hitchcock and Pulp Fiction, and a metaphor for shopping: wanting, searching and buying lots of “things”, while the actual intention is more about social connection. The actors in this film are the gallery viewers of “Shopping Bag”.Viewers are filmed discovering and looking into the bag, the inside of the bag is not shown/filmed, though a live camera will capture viewers looking into the bag.

Part 3: Viewing The McGuffin

Each week, raw footage would be edited mixing viewer footage with the positioned camera. A monitor, mounted on the wall, would be added each week, creating a wall and then a grid of McGuffins. The live feed plays on a monitor throughout the exhibition.

The McGuffins multiply within the project: initially the bag, then shopping, followed by filming and then watching once more. The props and mechanics hint at the underling concept of the piece, being watched and watching others. The project references both pop culture and social reality. We want to “watch” as demonstrated by the popularity of Reality TV, webcam sites, and an obsession with celebrities; and we are “watched”. Cameras are everywhere, at the Mall, in dressing rooms, on the street, in our schools, in our homes.