Then & Now - An actual good idea!

During my tutorial yesterday I managed to stumble across a way of combining my retro pattern and political statement ideas. I bemoaned the fact that if I were to strip the text from my Don Foster posters (see previous post) and put them up at college, hardly any of my fellow students would have a clue who it was or what I was angry about. Mental.

I always had the impression that art school was a hotbed of political/philosophical discussion, activism, attitude and individuality. People used to be fired up about some cause or other and used their creative skills and time and energy to do something about. Sure, back then there was Vietnam, Korea, social inequality, sexism, racism, loads of other isms. And now what do we have? Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, social inequality, sexism, racism...

Why are art school students not bothered about this stuff?

They are more interested in drawing owls, getting the latest iPhone and making sure all their clothes are the same as everyone else's (Jack Wills, Hollister, Urban Outfitters). It's all just consumption. So then I got the idea of somehow representing these two different eras of consumption.

Back in the sixties and seventies, students were consuming ideologies and now they consume brands. I am thinking about making two cupboards that I can fix on the walls. The first, "Then", will contain tins, jars, etc. all branded in a sixties/seventies style (think Jonny Trunk's Sainsbury's Own Label book) but instead of saying "soup" or "beans" or "coffee" they will say "activism" or "Marxism" or "equality". I will need to research and think about what these actual words will be, but you get the drift.

The other cupboard, "Now", will contain a bunch of stuff branded in a recognisably modern style (this needs researching) and will have banal consumerist slogans on them, like "latest Apple product", "X-Factor", "celebrity", etc. I will need to do some research and nail exactly which words to use.

So the final piece will be an installation but I will also take some of these mock products into the photography studio and get some beautiful shots that can be made into posters. Yes. That is what I shall do.