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Journey up the Amazon – Martha McCollough

We take a trip through consumerism with Martha McCollough’s Journey up the Amazon.

This videopoem uses animation techniques to display a collage that blends clipped images, text in screen and drawings, all with a mix of vintage and contemporary aesthetics. There are some layers of overlapping contents that enrich the whole videopoem. Some ‘mechanical’ voices whisper words in counterpoint to the recited poem. Texts overimposed on screen offer additional meanings to the voice over. And a sound atmosphere with touches of experimental jazz gives harmony to all of it.

The poem is an exploration of consumerism. The world is a paradise of modernity where you can buy all sorts of things, from the most extravagant and superficial ones (fake mustaches, a horse mask, magnetic letters, candies, temporary insect tattoos) to a dress to cure the sadness caused by loss. Modernity delivered to the Kindl at a click. Even five stars rated flowers to save our minds. Marketing devouring the innocent beauty of flowers.