Samantha Cheng
Maximum Potential NOW (with Matt Joils & Sophie Sutherland)
Blue Oyster Art Project Space, 20 April - 8 June 2024
Maximum Potential NOW brings together three artists: Samantha Cheng, Matt Joils and Sophie Sutherland, who each draw from the multiple, and ever-pervasive, languages and realities of consumer capitalism—what writer Jia Tolentino refers to in her essay ‘Always Be Optimizing’ as the “chopped-salad economy’s accelerationist nightmare.”
One of these realities is the feeling of failure; felt through an acute lack, an inability to measure up to the expected standard, or how active opposition or resistance to capitalism can become, ultimately, subsumed back into the norm. Much of the language of commercial advertising exploits anxieties around failure. A language often shared by the self-help and wellness industries: are you surviving or thriving?
*Images by the artist unless specified
Shiny from every angle, video still 0:05:12, April 2024
Installation view, April 2024
Detail of Shiny from every angle, April 2024
Detail of Shiny from every angle, April 2024
Installation detail of Angurgapi and a Good Luck Stave (Sophie Sutherland) and exhibition ephemera, April 2024
Lifehack Poster (assembly required) (with Matt Joils & Sophie Sutherland), April 2024
Installation view of Lifehack Poster (assembly required), April 2024
Enablers of Travel, April 2024
Details of Enablers of Travel, April 2024
Image by Miranda Bellamy
Details of Enablers of Travel, April 2024
Image by of Miranda Bellamy
Installation view of Iconic Comfort (Sophie Sutherland), Send it (Sophie Sutherland), Thrive Optima 2.0 (Sophie Sutherland), and Enablers of Travel, April 2024
Image by Miranda Bellamy
Installation view of We can manufacture desires (Matt Joils) and Enablers of Travel, April 2024
Image by Miranda Bellamy
Promotional image for Maximum Potential NOW, April 2024
Image by Lindsey de Roos
Promotional image for Maximum Potential NOW, April 2024
Image by Lindsey de Roos
Promotional image for Maximum Potential NOW, April 2024
Image by Lindsey de Roos