the mcdonald’s as the flood begins photo of video installation by designboom

danish artist trio superflex (rasmus nielsen, jakob fenger and bjørnstjerne christiansen) wanted to depict a critique of the increasing flow of consumerism into people’s lives, so they built a working replica of a mcdonald’s restaurant and flooded it with water. empty of any presence save abandoned meals, the 20 minute video, shown at this year’s singapore art biennale, has a classic eerie quality combined moments of humor (a plastic ronald mcdonald bobbing across the restaurant), as water fills the fast food joint. compositionally, the art of the piece shines through in its visuals while watching the slow destruction take place to a soundtrack of running water that conjures up various political meanings on its own.

superflex: flooded mcdonald's water slowly seeps over the floor of the fast food joint photo of video installation by designboom

superflex: flooded mcdonald's ronald mcdonald floating across the flooded store photo of video installation by designboom

superflex: flooded mcdonald's a partially eaten burger remains undistrubed amidst the flood photo of video installation by designboom

superflex: flooded mcdonald's video still courtesy of superflex

superflex: flooded mcdonald's photo of video installation by designboom

superflex: flooded mcdonald's video still courtesy of superflex

superflex: flooded mcdonald's the water completely taking over the mcdonald’s video still courtesy of superflex

superflex: flooded mcdonald's underwater view video still courtesy of superflex

superflex: flooded mcdonald's the crew at work video still courtesy of superflex

superflex: flooded mcdonald's working on the signage video still courtesy of superflex

Flooded McDonald’s from Superflex on Vimeo.

— the third edition of the singapore biennale (SB2011) opened its doors to the public on march 13th and will run until may 15th, 2011.  designboom visited the shows led by artistic director matthew ngui and curators russell storer and trevor smith. the SB2011 open house program is organized by the singapore art museum (SAM) of the national heritage board and supported by the national arts council, singapore. 63 artists from 30 countries are presenting 161 works across four exhibition venues – SAM and SAM at 8Q, the national museum of singapore, old kallang airport and marina bay.