It’s been nearly half a century since Andy Warhol paved the way for a culture where pop icons and art stars, mass consumption and elite taste can merge unblushingly. In fact, these days it’s encouraged, with some of the world’s biggest mainstream celebrities mingling seamlessly with the world of high art, and visa versa. Here are our favorite moments in which pop culture and art intersected in 2010:
While the French employees of the Château de Versailles closed his solo exhibit to strike against new retirement legislation, Takashi Murakami’s two key characters, Kaikai and Kiki, were flying proudly in New York’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Meanwhile, the Japanese enfant terrible himself, appeared in a flower costume riding the float beneath them.
Like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg before him, artist Jeff Koons teamed with BMW to launch the latest Art Car for the ’24 Heures du Mans’ race in June. Koons designed a multicoloured paint job for the company’s M3 GTS model. Critics said it resembled Damien Hirst’s famous spin paintings, but Koons claimed it was inspired by a “type of dynamic energy and the generosity of Christmas lights.”
Canada’s very own art super star Douglas Coupland collaborated with the iconic Canadian clothing brand Roots. Together they prodiced “a new fashion line that screams ‘Oh Canada!’” (according to the press release). With a retro 80s color scheme based on television color bars (among other motifs), the collection seemed dated, but in the best possible way.
In May, artist Marina Abramovich agreed to begin her (already) legendary performance “The Artist is Present” at the MoMA early, specifically to accommodate singer Björk, Matthew Barney, and their young daughter. On that specific day, only nine people sat with the artist – Björk and her family accounting for a third of them. The general public was outraged that –even if this year the Whitney Biennale was accessible via Twitter, Flickr and Facebook — art seemingly remains elitist.
After a collaboration with Murakami and an orgiastic video with artist Marco Brambilla, Kanye West commissioned George Condo to design five covers for his magnum opus “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy”. Always courting controversy, one cover depicting the rapper copulating with a sphinx was banned by Target. Kanye demonstrated yet again how to elegantly gain pop cred with the art world and art cred with the pop world.
And last but not least, James Franco signed on to appear in twenty episodes of “General Hospital” as a bad-boy artist “Franco, just Franco.” In various episodes the actor tumbles off a balcony, spouts lines like, “What you see is most definitely not what you get” and openly mocks gallery visitors who praise his art for “transcending time and space.” In interviews, the actor/writer/artist/model (he’s the face of Gucci’s Gucci) confessed that the stunt was a piece of performance art. In June, however, a selection of his ‘real’ art was the subject of a solo exhibition in NYC. “Handsome film star becomes a pop culture meta-icon while attending Yale as a PhD student” was not the tag line of a new Woody Allen film. It was how James Franco’s spent his year.
When news broke last month that Milton, Ontario-based rockers The Most Serene Republic had been recruited by author Douglas Coupland to soundtrack his new clothing line with Roots, there were more than a few head-scratching fans from both ends of the spectrum. Turns out the collaboration-no-one-saw-coming was a perfect match for everyone involved.
TMSR’s song “Pink Noise” (from their recent digital-only EP “Fantasick Impossibliss”) is the official song for the clothing line, which is called Roots x Douglas Coupland. What’s more, Most Serene Republic keyboardist Ryan Lenssen teamed up with film score composer Terence Gowan to write an original soundtrack for the campaign. Both the music video and campaign teaser will be shown in Roots stores across Canada. It’s something the band says was a no-brainer in terms of exposure. But they also jumped on the chance to work with Coupland, one of their favorite authors both in terms of prose and subject matter. Both TMSR and Coupland say the collaboration is extension of the current artistic movement — a world in which art, words, music and fashion are seamlessly coming together to soundtrack our everyday lives. If an author can design a clothing line and a small Canadian indie band can score the campaign, it proves that art and fashion are truly opening up to anyone and everyone, and the possibilities like they say, are endless.
Check out The Most Serene Republic’s video for “Pink Noise,” interspersed with behind-the-scenes footage of the Roots x Douglas Coupland clothing line below:
The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto is the site of a unique new exhibition this month that explores the idea of reusing and recycling as a creative pursuit in Canadian design. Taking place in conjunction with the first-ever Toronto International Design Festival this week, “Cut/Paste” showcases the “new” and often upscale work that can result from the manipulation of existing and salvaged product. The process, better known as “creative reuse,” has become one of the most visible trends in contemporary international design, with Canadians like Tobias Wong (whose lamp chair is seen at left) and Douglas Coupland leading the charge. It’s equal parts improvisation and artistic technique, while also speaking to larger themes of environmental sustainability and adaptation to one’s surroundings. With that in mind, the exhibition includes everything from early First Nations adaptations of European products, to the iconic K42 Kettle (first produced in Canada by General Electric in 1940 in response to war time manufacturing restraints), in addition to all the big name artists with work on display.
Manufacturers such as Umbra (with its clock made from old ties found at Goodwill) and Gus* Modern are already finding ways to apply the same “creative reuse” approach to their products, with a focus now on turning around larger production runs. Organizers hope the exhibit will spur similar responses in other manufacturers and casual viewers alike, as we move toward decreasing our consumption of energy and materials, while increasing our artistic output. Organizers also see this as a chance to encourage art in marginalized communities. By utilizing local and reclaimed materials, even impoverished groups can now afford to produce unique designs and creations of their own. The influence of “creative reuse,” organizers say, extends well beyond gallery walls.
“Cut/Paste: Creative Reuse in Canadian Design” is on now and runs until January 31st at the Institute for Contemporary Culture, at the Roloff Beny Gallery inside the Royal Ontario Museum. More details on the exhibition and opening hours can be found on the museum’s website.
