LOS ANGELES, CA.- Noysky Projects is presenting Everything Must Go, a site-specific exhibition by Don Porcella that examines the intersection of consumer culture and the commodification of memories. Located just 100 feet from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood Boulevard, Everything Must Go illuminates America’s obsession with nostalgia, the lure of the tourist industry, and the manipulation of desire.

The souvenir shop is one of the few places where the average person can purchase a token symbolizing the American Dream, affording the tourist a memento of a place and time that has intense meaning. Relics from a souvenir shop are typically a cheap imitation of luxury that are made from impermanent materials, much like a film set. But unlike the polished veneer of a stage, Porcella embraces the unrefined characteristics in his relics, using accessible materials like pipe cleaner, puffy paint, and cardboard, affirming the true value of the subjects represented.

Porcella’s awkward and comical representations conjure a formative, more innocent time. Vivid recreations from his memories are commodified, including shoes that were stolen, pure air from his childhood, and his unrealized sports career, critiquing consumer culture and the idea that people will sell anything, including their own humanity, to obtain material prosperity.

While consumer culture remains central to Porcella’s work, the absurdity of the art business also appears throughout the exhibition. Art trope avatars are apparent in Patron, Critic, Dealer, and Artist, where the sale of cheap merchandise is conflated with the sale of serious art, revealing the internal dialogue artist is faced as both the facilitator and inhibitor of their own work.

Despite its wide embrace of American culture, Porcella’s work remains equally critical of it, mirroring the country’s socio-economic trends and its obsession with the authenticity of the past. Everything Must Go is a rare opportunity for people from disparate walks of life to discuss their dreams and aspirations while evoking an inclusive space to discuss new ones.