DYADIC | MAPJD 2016/17 | Projects

Venezuela: Tunnelling Power

The power to focus is also the power to exclude

Mullainathan and Shafir, Scarcity (2013)

They argue that scarcity, meaning the lack of what is needed, produces a tunneling effect which captures people’s minds, narrows their field of vision and causes them to focus solely on managing the scarcity thereby creating a lack of curiosity about wider issues, and an inability to consider longer-term consequences.

Paradoxically, scarcity is the new face of the oil country. It is the defining aspect of a Venezuelan's daily life and has the power to completely control the lives of the populace; who spend up to 10 hours a week looking for food. It also controls the lives of Venezuelans living abroad. For Venezuelan expatriates, every sweet moment is immediately mixed with bitter guilt in remembering what their people lack; they are haunted with a recurrent need to help them.

This project explores scarcity as a mechanism for control based on the tunneling effect. Starvation and suppression are so common and powerful, that people have almost become accustomed to it.

This project is a response to my need to report what is happening in my country and to demonstrate how it affects all Venezuelans at home and abroad. Working with Venezuelans who send aid to their families or NGO’s, I asked them to reflect how scarcity has affected them and their families. In this photographic exploration, I attempted to evoke the invisible tunnel effect by manipulating each portrait to reveal the personal controlling effect it has on each individual. The viewer is invited to identify with our situation by reflecting on their own life -tunneling which is the short-sightedness in our daily lives; it’s the constantly juggling and moving from one task to another, while excluding and neglecting things; it’s the perennial time money scarcity problem.

www.yorlimendoza.com

yorli.mendoza@gmail.com

@yormenh_photos

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Venezuela: Tunnelling Power | Photography by Yorli Mendoza