Artist Statement

Beware the Next Shiny Thing Covid-19 Project - Breathe. May/June 2020 Métis beaded mask by Kathleen (Kats) Klein This Mask represents my fear that humans have become addicted to new and shiny objects at the expense of their own safety. Like all addictions, those afflicted with Next Shiny Thing addictions will do anything for a fix. Even risk exposure to life threatening circumstances, or in this case, Covid-19. This addiction leaves us in a superficial state of needing to stimulate or soothe our souls with shiny new things. Seeking a false sense of power, we take whatever thing we desire from dollar store plastics to gold trimmed SUV’s. We blindly accumulate debt and turn away from our interconnectedness to nature and humanity in the pursuit of the fix. Beware the Next Shiny Thing questions the current state of anxiety that I feel over this disconnected and addicted time we live in. The gold fringe/tassels form a curtain that beckons with shine and glamour and can be pulled back to reveal the warning, Do Not Enter, Covid-19 is present.