Zachary Fabri presents one of the more rabble-rousing pieces, a video of a street performance that challenges the common stereotypes of race and class. Using corn syrup and white flour, Fabri pushes sensitive societal buttons by becoming a public “eyesore.”

Kay Reese’s photo-based collages attack the materialism of American culture; while her message is loud and clear (one image shows a woman slicing a designer handbag), you wish that her approach were more formally nuanced. In a comment on waste, Sandra Lee reprocesses odd materials (graph paper, plastic bags and receipts) to create improvised items of clothing. James Jaxxa’s hot-pink football celebrates the razzle-dazzle of mass culture while also parodying traditional notions of masculinity. Gender roles are also prominent in Swati Khurana’s dreamy video, an interrogation of the fantasy-laden Bollywood films of her native India. Similarly, Puerto Rican-born Miguelangel Ruiz creates a hybrid comic-heroic character based on his country’s popular culture, as a way of reflecting on his own sense of displacement.