2022 - 2023 Season’s Greetings Series

Season’s Greetings is a series of digitally edited scans of 120 film negatives. Shot on a Holga “toy” camera known for its distortions ranging from blur to light leaks, Wilder peels back the overlapping layers of social constructs embedded in the Christmas holiday in the US by pairing photographs of holiday decorations with text fragments from academic journal articles. A “social construct” is a social mechanism or category developed by society that forwards perception of an individual or group that is created culturally as opposed to biologically. Social constructs include gender, race, religion, and many other groupings that strongly impact an individual’s sense of identity. These social constructs are perpetuated by how a child is raised, language and other communication practices, and visible signs including advertising, popular culture, and education. Social constructs Wilder is exploring in Season’s Greetings with regard to Christmas include aspects of capitalism, Christianity, colonialism, and gender. Many people approach the Christmas holiday in the US with compulsive, ritualized behaviors. A “ritual” is a series of actions performed in a defined sequence. While rituals are often derived from one’s culture and/or religion, Wilder’s ritual in Season’s Greetings is a personal investigation into memory, social constructs, and identity related to the holiday. Wilder uses (in)visibility and concealment as artistic strategies to create works that to varying degrees withhold information viewers may expect or desire.

Season's Greetings: Cultural Meaning In the Home Has to Be Re-established Through Various Rituals (Sacralising the Profane, Tynan & McKechnie, 2006)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: A Parent May Strongly Prefer to Give a Child a Classic Novel Rather Than a Comic Book, Cash, or an Ounce of Cocaine (Children and the Economics of Christmas Gift-Giving, Horton Tremblay & Tremblay, 1995)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: People Often Become Even Larger Consumers of Natural Resources During the Holiday (What Makes for a Merry Christmas?, Kasser & Sheldon, 2002)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: With Every Pleasure Felt By the Consumption of What Is New (Who Destroys Our Spiritual Christmas?, Șteliac & Șteliac, 2018)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Representations of Christmas Resting On the Expectation that People Will Engage in Expressing Themselves Through Their Homes (Home is Where the Heart Is?, Vachhani & Pullen, 2011)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: An Outrage Against Energy Conservation and Ecological Thinking (All Consuming Christmas, Wenell, 2009)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Compulsory for Women and Undesirable for Men (More Than a Labor of Love, Fischer & Arnold, 1990)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: It Surely Has Something To Do With the Pagan Celebration of the Unconquerable Sun (Let There Be Light, Cunningham, 2011)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Consumption Has a Strong Impact On the Construction of Self-Identity (Women’s Magazines as Facilitators of Christmas Rituals, Freeman & Bell, 2013)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: A Practice Which Serves to Suppress and Exclude (Undecking the Halls, Lewis, 2005)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: A Sign of the Residents' Cohesiveness and Contact With Neighbors (Inferences About Homeowners' Sociability, Werner, Peterson-Lewis, & Brown, 1989)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Taking Over the World (Conjuring Up Traditions, Mason & Muir, 2013)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: From the Huge Real Forest Tree to a Minimalist Twig (Social Meanings in Christmas Consumption, McKechnie & Tynan, 2006)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: A Social Message That Inseparably Connects Beauty and Women (Gender Representation in Advertising of Toys in the Christmas Period (2009-12), Martínez, Nicolás, & Salas, 2013)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: It's So Fucking Weird (You Asked for It, Rosen, 1988)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Boys Predominantly Requested Traditional Sex-Typed Toys (The Gender-Stereotyped Nature of Christmas Toys Received by 36-, 48-, and 60-Month-Old Children, Robinson & Morris, 1986)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Father Christmas Has Come to Deal Only in Rewards (Ritualized Christmas Headgear, Rippin, 2011)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: No Child Ever Openly Questioned the Reality of White Santa (Santa Stories, Copenhaver-Johnson, Bowman, & Johnson, 2007)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Americans Presented Images of Christmas to the Japanese Through Parades, Gifts, and Charitable Activities (The Christmas Cake, Konagaya, 2001)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Certainly Something Else Than Unconditional Altruism (Seasonal Altruism, Ekström, 2018)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: It Had to Be Elaborately Decorated to Make it Magical to Out Sparkle the Neighbours (Hedonic Meaning Creation Though Christmas Consumption, Tynan & McKechnie, 2009)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Those Who Are Low in Neuroticism May Be More Inclined to Spend Their Money More Freely (Who Are the Scrooges?, Weston, Gladstone, Graham, Mroczek, & Condon, 2019)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: This Egregious Life of Arduous Work Without Pay (An (Anti)Neoliberal Christmas, Szetela, 2018)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: This Is a Great Photo / There's Nothing Interesting Here! (Boys & Dolls; Girls & Cars, Ulrich & Ezan, 2016)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: In Putting On the Suit and Entering the Sleigh (Spirits, Miracles, and Clauses, Saltmarsh, 2007)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Into Something Synthetic and Plastic (The Marketing of Christmas, Erb, 1985)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Managing Expectations May Become Meaningless (Consumer Emotions on Black Friday, Lennon, Kim, Lee, & Johnson, 2018)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Neither the Resources Nor the Willingness to Resist (Why Some South Asian Muslims Celebrate Christmas, Khan, Lindridge, & Pusaksrikit, 2018)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Consumerist Model of Happiness (A Measure for Christmas Spirit, Clarke, 2007)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: A Form of Training for the Consumer Child (Status of Brands in Children's Consumption, Ganassali, 2019)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: An Opportunity to Exercise Restrictive Parental Control (Parental Communication Patterns and Children's Christmas Requests, Clarke, 2008)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: Trampled by Shoppers in Their Frenzied Rush to Enter the Store and Obtain Promoted Bargains (A Perfect Storm for Consumer Misbehavior, Lennon, Johnson, & Lee, 2011)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season's Greetings: An Unruly, Carnivalesque Celebration of Disorder (I'll Be Home for Christmas, Sigler, 2005)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2023
Season’s Greetings: Psychological Dedication to Waste (The Theory of the Leisure Class, Veblen, 1899)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: Holiday Gifting Practices Appear Wasteful (Holiday Gifting at a Children’s Hospital, Barnes, 2019)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: A Child Can Choose One Path that will Close His Heart (Depend On, Rely On, Count On, Saltmarsh, 2009)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: Christmas Certainly Involves the Purchase of Goods Which are Unnecessary (Christmas: An American Paradox, Cramer, 1977)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: A Reasonable Tree (How Long is a Piece of Christmas Lighting?, Ellison, 2013)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: Giants of Modern Retail (Christmas, Consumption, & Materialism, Batinga, Pinto, & Resende, 2017)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: Truly Compulsive Behaviors (It’s the Thought that Counts, Pollay, 1987)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: The Effect of Advancing Religion (A Christmas Issue, Hartenstein, 1992)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: All Traditional Rituals Have Been Invaded By Commercial Aspects (Attitudes on Commercialisation and Anti-Commercial Reactions on Gift-Giving Occasions in Belgium, Mortelmans & Damen, 2001)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: An Act of Largely Political Expediency (A Christmas Carol, Hancock, 2016)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: Threat to Men (Myth, Identity, and Social Interaction, Thompson & Hickey, 1989)

40 inches by 30 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022
Season’s Greetings: Many Unbalanced Exchanges (Rule Enforcement without Visible Means, Caplow, 1984)

30 inches by 40 inches
Digitally Edited Scan of 120 Film (Shot on a Holga), Academic Text
2022