Catalog / Collages by Michael Sjostedt

A nostalgic view at the lost ritual of browsing through home catalogs, this exhibit takes "a deep dive into these vintage catalogs as an adult—and with a 21st century lens—showing how much of a role the tools of consumerism informed the foundation of our identities."

When he started the series, Sjostedt wanted to create evidence of how he consumed imagery and messages that he had a deep, charged history with. He started from instinct, not overthinking the process—like he did when I was “shopping”: culling, layering, extracting, and incorporating other materials and techniques that connected with the experience and subject matter—sewing patterns, pencil-drawn grids, tape transfers.

The final collection illustrates how he looks out to look in—and look out again. The messy visual narrative is what it felt like to catalog his experience with content focused on buying what you can be.