Chicago, Illinois (Cell)

Artist Brian Ulrich American, born 1971

Date2003

MediumChromogenic print

Dimensions30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6 cm)

ClassificationsPhotography

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Friends of Photography

Object number2008.11.1

On View

Not on view

Label Text"In 2001 citizens were encouraged to take to the malls to boost the U.S. economy through shopping, thereby equating consumerism with patriotism. The Copia project, a direct response to that advice, is a long-term photographic examination of the peculiarities and complexities of the consumer-dominated culture in which we live." — Brian Ulrich

Ulrich’s photographs deal directly with issues of contemporary consumer culture and its reflections on issues of class and excess. This work is from the artist’s Copia series, which focuses on malls and big-box retail stores, and the shoppers within. Ulrich describes his photographs as “behavioral studies,” and like an urban anthropologist, he prowls suburban shopping centers with a medium-format camera and a waist-level viewfinder that lets him inconspicuously capture images of consumers in their natural element.

Chicago, Illinois (Cell) depicts a shopper staring at a case crammed with a mind-boggling array of food, seemingly in a stupor induced by an overabundance of choices. She has a phone glued to her ear—calling for help?

[L. Dougherty, 2009]
ProvenanceCreated Chicago, 2003; collection of the artist; [Julie Saul Gallery, New York]; sold to NCMA, 2008.
Published ReferencesRichard B. Woodward, "Critic's Choice Pick: Brian Ulrich," ARTnews (November 2007), illus (color) 240.

MP3: Brian Ulrich (New York: Aperture Foundation, 2006), illus. 23.
Object Rights Statement

The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) makes images of its collection available online to support research and scholarship and to inform and educate the public. Certain works of art, as well as the photographs of those works of art, may be protected by copyright, trademark, or related interests not owned by the NCMA. The responsibility for ascertaining whether any such rights exist and for obtaining all other necessary permissions remains with the applicant. To request images and/or permissions from the NCMA, please complete our online request form.