Repo Man: generic packaging in a plain pack world
"Clark Collins definition of Repo Man as an 'hilarious genre-hopping indictment of consumerism in which, for example, all cans of drink in the supermarket are labelled simply 'drink'' (Collins 2001: 36)"
(Nicholas Rombes)
Nicholas Rombes (2005). New Punk Cinema, Edinburgh University Press.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Cindy Sherman’s work functions seamlessly (and successfully) within late capitalist society
"Although [Cindy] Sherman is often heralded as the quintessential 'postmodern' artist, the modernist tendencies of her work coupled with the critics' inability to confront the ambiguity of her work, have rendered her 'postmodern' label problematic. Postmodern theory advocates a deconstruction of the power structures embedded in late capitalist society. But Sherman's work functions seamlessly (and successfully) within the market strategies of the '80s, typified by corporate control of museums and market control of galleries. Given that her work can be read as both a challenge to the art market and a creative, marketable product, the boundary between postmodern critique of the market and marketability has clearly been eroded. While critics applaud Sherman's work for deconstructively denying the totality of a 'real Cindy', the meaning of her work is dependent upon the concept of the celebrity 'Cindy'. Simultaneously, critics partially negate her 'deconstruction', mythologizing her as the autonomous 'artist-genius', harkening back to the modernist heroization of the creative individual. On one level, Sherman's work appears to be subversively linked to 'low' art characterized by 'b-grade' film and photography, on another level, her work is fetishized as the modernist ideal of the 'high' art object."
(Nadine Lemmon)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
