“The abstraction of the consumer object has been achieved through the spectacular effects of advertising, display, and presentation strategies which are directed more at motivating the viewer’s desire for consumption than at demonstrating the utilitarian properties of the object. This exhibition seeks to raise some fundamental questions regarding the shifting state of economic and social exchange and to suggest ways in which the work of certain artists and critics have addressed these issues. Inherent in the work of the artists included is the necessity for change, not only within the over-commercialized environment of the art world but in economic conditions in general.”

-Brian Wallis, Damaged Goods catalogue