Monopoly by Scott Yoell

In the summer of 1998 I found myself working as an artisan on the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. It was a contract gig that a good friend hooked me up with because I was a sculptor with an extensive background in construction, concrete and swimming pool fabrication. I was already one year into graduate school, broke for cash and unsure whether I wanted to continue with my direction of studies. The job assigned to me was to create 'The Lost City of Atlantis'. Now I know that on a theoretical and sociological level the creation of a man made mystery is a thesis unto itself, like that expressed by Baudrillard's critique of Disneyland. But for me at the time, young and naive it felt like a grand, majestic task, solemn-sounding, evoking an image of the surge and hiss of huge waves breaking over submerged rocks, to spend themselves in white ocean foam.

While in the Caribbean I often found my way to the many famous Straw Markets. A huge, mostly open air place, packed to the brim with little stalls selling all manner of souvenirs and crafts, T-shirts, masks, tiki statues, jewelry and seashells; all authentically crafted with a label 'MADE IN CHINA'. Ironically, 12 years later I find myself staring at like, if not the exact same plastic tourist trinkets being sold in similar out door markets and local tourist ABC shops here in Hawai'i. There is something really funny, sad and even satirical about finding plastic tiki statue cigarette lighters organized and stacked along with boxes of Kraft Dinners. As a resident of the Island State I find myself swimming in a fiction of paradise.

The installation 'Monopoly', a recent addition to a larger body of work called 'Abstractions of a Paradigm' takes its form as a fantastical response to a conflicted world. Common themes include the meaningful associations between man and his unnatural world, concerns with infringing ideologies; as well as the global manufacturing of paradise – an imaginary force of idealized culture that is nevertheless economically and corporately driven. 'Monopoly' is a critical look at how our society and our Hawai'i is being shaped by symbols of a failing consumer culture.

The Installation is a combination of sculptural and time based mediums including a rotating projection that emulates spiraling plastic debris in the ocean surf. It explores the great pacific gyre that touches the South Point of the Hawaii's Big Island where all manner of plastic waste such as discarded toys, water bottles, running shoes, lighters, and tourist trinkets wash upon shore. This plastic vortex, with billions of tiny shards of the synthetic material floating just below the surface of the water, is estimated to span an area 11/2 times the size of the continental United States.

My art practice is a search for in-between places, transitory-scapes that exist on the edge of historical pasts, omnipresent realities and unsure futures. These places are created at the same time as they are discovered; they deal with the idea that hegemonic images and values have penetrated all cultural space. I work intuitively, but my intuition is augmented with intellectual inquiry that is deeply rooted in both field and literary research. My work is very process oriented and ideas are often nurtured over long incubation periods. I do not see any individual piece as something that is final in its manifestation; rather, I see each work realized as only a moment of clarity expanding upon the realization of a much larger picture.