Burning Man

When I first read that Neil Boorman was planning to burn all the branded goods in his life I wondered why? I mean, it’s all a bit five years ago – in 2001 John Freyer sold his whole life on eBay and Michael Landy destroyed all of his possessions in Oxford Street.

Whilst Freyer and Landy were both preoccupied with possessions, Boorman’s focus is his addiction to brands. The subject of his investigation is not really consumerism – it’s himself. He’s trying to burn his addiction (he’s also publishing a book about it in 2007).

The choice of burning Nike Cortez sneakers as an image to kick off the project is interesting – it’s the classic model that the Heaven’s Gate cult were wearing when they killed themselves in 1997 waiting for the Hale-Bopp comet to take them away. We should be relieved that Boorman is only destroying his possessions and not himself.

I’m also relieved to read on his blog that he starts therapy next week, although if the book is to include this research it might be delayed – getting a therapist to commit to a publisher’s deadline will prove harder than burning all of those things!

David Rainbird
Posted on Thursday, 1st of June 2006 Permalink Comment (0)