Generically unique: The mass produced for the individual.
Consumerism is ubiquitous and ephemeral. It is arguably the religion of the late twentieth century. (Miles p.1)
As a subject, consumerism is something that has always interested me, whether we like it or not, it’s an ideology defines us and our western culture, it has grown into the way we live our lives. Although I feel there is slowly becoming a more common trend in that the consumer, is being drawn away from the mass produced market and the search for unique and the desire of being the individual, is becoming a more commonly desirable.
The middle- class desire to have for itself the objects of the upper class led to the economic system of the post- revolutionary world designed to meet this desire with an expanding supply and variety of goods. (Berry p.156)
Class systems are constantly blurring, in particular, the middle class, a system that is becoming extremely diluted. The upper end of which, are constantly looking to prove their worth, acting up in terms of consumption, fuelled by the desire to be a part of upper classes. Berry I feel sums up this vicious consumer cycle, the desire to portray ourselves on a higher social level, above the one at which we are. The middle class became an ideology in itself, which is keeping consumerism at the forefront of the way we live our lives. The consumer market dictating what middle class was;
The values and habits of the middle class where translated into marketable goods. In department store displays, advertisements, mail-order catalogs, the concept of proper middle class household was transformed into particular furnishings, a set of outfits, and a collection of leisure items. (Goodman, Cohen p.21)
One way in which this desire for social improvement is apparent, is in art. The upper classes have always collected art; owning extravagant objects that not available to just anybody, effectively a class status symbol. Art, in this sense, a social commodity, is both an interesting and frustrating idea, and sadly a lot of value applied to a piece of art in the world today, is monetary. Ultimately, the artist has become a brand itself, making their work collectable and desirable. As demonstrated by Iskin as she quotes Mellerio; a way, in which the artist have combated this problem and bridged the gap, is through the medium and the concept of the print.
Their artistic value is indisputable. The number of prints that can be printed, and the reasonableness of price, put them within reach of ever larger groups of people… as a mode of democratization enabling artists to reach many more potential collectors. (Iskin p.119)
It gives the opportunity for the lower classes to own the desirable named piece of art work and also gives the artist the chance to capitalise in the market to generate more regular sales of work.
Pop Art made the industrial character of the contemporary art world apparent, for not only had commerce turned art into a market, but it also industrialized the process of making art- and high art at that. (Halasz p.72)
Art really collided with consumerism head on in the United States in it the nineteen sixties, embraced in the emergence of the Pop Art movement.
Pop art opened up new vistas by embracing impurity. Warhol and Lichtenstein took on the beast where it lived in the very den of bourgeois consumerism. (Steiner p. 117)
Warhol, famous for his mass produced work, designed to replicate the repetitive growth of the American industry of the time. It is well known that he adopted and developed the method of photographic silk screen print, as a way of painting in order to generate a large quantity of work on an industrial scale and quickly.
Print was designed to produce mass amounts of generic media for the purposes of disseminating information quickly and effectively to a mass audience. Technology has a major influence in the progress of the print process, the speed, accuracy and more economical printing methods are needed in the world today. And personally, I believe these traditional processes are being lost. Even in art with the emergence of the Giclee print, now a recognised art form produced entirely mechanical from primarily a digital file, and also used as a way of producing replica prints of original work, simply to appease this need to own a piece of an artist’s work, when the purchase an original is not financially viable.
No longer a sequestered and quaint domestic leisure activity, crafts and DIY… have redefined their images and social stigmas with progressive agendas of emancipation, individualisation, sub cultural identification and anti-commercialism as well as emerged into a multibillion- dollar industry. (Luckman quoting Jakob p.12)
With websites such as EBay, Society6 and Etsy redefining what it means to be middle class, there has been a steady re-emergence of craft makers and artists, who are rapidly moving away from technology in order to create work. Like me they seem to feel there has been too much of a blurring of the lines between embracing technologies and using it as a point of experimentation, and it becoming a tool used to simply mass produce work on this industrial level and the idea of the hand of the artist is being lost forever. This is not being unnoticed by the consumer either, there is consistently becoming a trend and desire for the unique, people are becoming more aware of the mass produced and are beginning to crave the unique. It is most notable with the emergence of Indie Craft makers, appearing to provide for the individual, focusing in particular on exploiting the ideas of fashionably kitsch and more unorthodox in taste. They tend to produce generic objects such as framed prints, cushions, mugs and even up cycled furniture, dressed in heartfelt, cliché statements, cult movie quotes or generic print to promote their products in a way that helps the consumer feel like they are purchasing something individual and in most cases, the consumer is more willing to pay a higher price for the product itself. As this idea has spread and become increasingly more popular through the class systems, it has become an ideology, and a social commodity in itself, thus this creative rebellion has developed into a state of false anti- capitalism, false anti- consumerism and false anti- commercialism.
Catering for the Individual is becoming the new common trend on the consumer market at the moment. Taking the phrase ‘Give the customer what they want’ to another level. Even the biggest corporations are wising up to this notion. I work for fast food giant McDonalds. They are currently in transition into what they see as being a more transparent company between them and their customers. They are in the process of rebranding all of their UK stores into the self titled ‘Experience of the Future’ or the ‘Made for You’ era. The idea being that nothing is held, all your food is produced to order, made just for the individual customer, although all the singular elements for the products are now held instead. Nothing has really changed, only the way it is perceived. It’s a fascinating idea; they are taking their well established products, and rebranding the way they are constructed so that it fulfils a new model, an ever so slightly different set of ideals. The consumer is still receiving the same generic mass produced product, only prepared in a marginally different way. And somehow it makes the customer feel at ease that they are being catered for as an individual. This was an idea toyed with by Warhol following his recovery from his attempted assassination. He decided that anybody could have a piece of his work for a price, essentially working to high priced commissions.
I want my work to sit within this creative context. I am surrounded constantly by the immense level of packaging and products that is brought into the store in which I work on a daily basis. I want to use this imagery as a source of influence and inspiration. My aim is explore ways to take this mass mechanically produced imagery and try and replicate these ideas through more traditional and more importantly slower, print methods. I will do this in a bid to provide my own clients with something generic, produced on mass that they are constantly aware of but that has been reproduced in a way that feels more personal and individual to them, essentially, mass produced art, made for the individual.