Theme Popular Culture
The following is an excerpt from an essay in Teaching Contemporary Art with Young People by Lisa Hochtritt.
Popular culture is fodder for contemporary artists. It provides imagery for art that highlights the qualities of popular culture, calls attention to what we wouldn’t usually recognize in it or helps us to see things in new ways.
Kathy Aoki
Kathy Aoki delights in social satire. Known for her parody of feminist images and her iconoclastic humor, Aoki draws on many resources, particularly popular visual culture and conventional feminine “memes” such as princesses, hearts, lipsticks, and mascara brushes. Her work cleverly questions what is authentic while also drawing on the characteristics of humor and pastiche. In her series dedicated to the Hello Kitty Monument, Aoki created a simulation of a Mt. Rushmore-like rock sculpture complete with an imaginary visitor center experience, selfie spot diorama, and an audio tour.In Aoki’s ongoing series, “Museum of Historical Makeovers,” she creates performance pieces to accompany the exhibition such as a satirical curator performance-lecture for the series and a mockumentary-style, animated trailer for the Gwen Stefani Grand Burial Exhibition. These are artifacts from the exhibition.
Kathy Aoki
Hello Kitty Monument (above)
2018
Gwen Stefani Canopic Jars (below)
2009
José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros
José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros
Don't Listen to Them, Dumbo
2015
Ontiveros juxtaposes Disney characters and pop icons using parody and humor to create unexpected scenarios. Thus, he plays with archetypes by inserting these characters in novel but strangely logical circumstances.
In Don’t Listen to them, Dumbo, Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros depicts Vincent van Gogh cutting the ear of Dumbo the elephant. He merges the stories of Van Gogh and Dumbo and creates a shared narrative in this unexpected scenario. The work of José Rodolfo Loaiza Ontiveros is filled with references that invite you to go on a treasure hunt, searching for pop culture clues.
Stephanie Syjuco
Syjuco is well-known for her counterfeit project where she sets up opportunities for people to work together to create their own crocheted designer handbags that are knockoffs of the originals. The Chanel bag is an example of one of these handmade counterfeit bags. With the act of reclaiming a culturally constructed item, Syjuco comments on consumerism and consumption and puts the power into the hands of the makers.
With the act of reclaiming a culturally constructed item, Syjuco comments on consumerism and consumption and puts the power into the hands of the makers.
