Campaign Ads as High Art
Posted by ben on 05 Jul 2007 at 12:34 pm | Tagged as: essays, video/film
When I first saw Mike Gravel’s on YouTube, I figured he was just a 3rd tier Democrat trying to leverage Dadaism to get a little publicity. Crispin Sartwell has decided that these ads are no mere publicity stunt, but the genuine avant-garde of campaigning: “These are Dadaist campaign ads, as revolutionary in their context as Duchamp’s urinal, Warhol’s Marilyns, Washington crossing the Delaware, Bugs Bunny’s attack on Elmer Fudd.” You may never again see someone reference Baudrillard while critiquing a campaign ad, so enjoy it while you can, if you can:
Gravel’s works confront us with our own existences and our deaths, the brute thereness of truth, the skull beneath the $400 haircut, the cellulite under the pants suit. His is neo-existentialist, post-apocalyptic, post-post modern art, a silence that screams and cajoles.
(via The Plank)
I feel like I just watched a cheap Bertolt Brecht play and someone took a pee in my popcorn.
His name is Gravel; he throws a rock; I feel stoned.
yo kernel sandcorn, lay off the boot shaped bong and get a flipppin job. this is HIGH art at its finest man, why you gotta get all up in his bona fide, presidential campagining GRILL? oh, 4th of july, nevermind. see you in the bivouac.
I’m sorry, I thought defending the decency of our great nation was a FULL time job! Anyway, yeah, I’ll see in the bivouac. I’ll be sitting in the corner wearing a red, white, and blue outfit and working on my erotic novel. They’re quite popular these days in the neo-conservative scene. I think it could be my big artistic break…
Methinks you would fare better at getting a big artistic break by entering the dark world of performance ART with your american flag decorated BVDs. Good day, kernel!! I said good day!
asshat