Easy Living

1984, 18:15 min, color, sound

Creating a miniature suburban world of cars, gas stations, drive-ins and two-story houses, Lord and McGowan (a sculptor and collector of cultural artifacts) gently satirize the complacency and insularity of contemporary consumer life in Easy Living. Using toy figures, the artists trace a typical day in suburbia, a landscape of leisure and passivity in which ordinary activities resonate with an eerie quality. The sounds of a horror film swelling from the drive-in and the patrol of a local police car locate an undercurrent of uneasiness and falsity beneath the surface of prosperous tranquility. In this satiric simulation of a day in the life of suburban America, Lord and McGowan illustrate how the media has shaped postwar culture with cliches and artifice.

This title was the winner of the Work of Excellence Award at the 8th Tokyo Video Festival. Director of Photography: Jules Backus. Produced in association with the Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund.