Adam Batchelor And His View On The Western “Happiness”

Agape Charmani for Art-Sheep

Since Andy Warhol brought Campbell’s Soup Cans into our homes -I mean galleries, many artists have embraced the use of consumer products in their art and the production of dialogues between products and ideas. One of those artists is illustrator Adam Batchelor, whose work is driven by his interest in the relationship between the natural and the producible.

Batchelor draws influence from the human separation from nature and how it affects not only the humans, but the animals and natural habitats as well. According to the artist, through his drawings he wishes to “look at how we portray and understand ecology and the animal kingdom.”

His latest project called Happiness, is a collection of ongoing drawings that correctly remind one of mandalas. These “consumerist mandalas” are the wheels of life for the western world, including everything a modern family needs in order to “survive” through the contemporary life adversities. From beautiful flowers to all kinds of drugs, the content of these life circles vary, as both sustaining and destructive products flow around babies.

This series works as a writing pad for the artist, who seems to be wondering about the essence and importance of the things that surround us since the beginning of our lives. “Consumerism might have brought us our medicine and food to help our children grow, but it has also brought beer, liquor, whiskey, gin, a cornucopia of alcohol to consume, and a wheel of unhappiness, ever rotating.”