February 6, 2010

Capitalization



So you cannot stray from a medium in which you were a great part of?

John McKinnon mentioned in his lecture that Andy Warhol was told that he cannot do abstract because he is Andy Warhol.

This video clip of Andy Warhol in a Japanese ad was an attempt to connect Andy to new media, and multiculturalism. It seems as though if you want to change your medium you need to flee the country in order for whatever comes next to be accepted. Klaus Nomi, at the end of his career/life, seemed to be more accepted in Europe.
Andy Warhol in Japan?

These commercialized art forms seem to be exhausted here and then shipped abroad unlike commercialized material things which are invented here tested there and then if they pass the marketing test they come here. Sometimes those inventions after passing the test abroad come here and inspire new art forms, such as digital media art. So incorpoting capitalism in the global world, hence da title.

3 comments:

  1. Dandy Warhol's image was "readymade" and acquired a new potency for marketability in Japan. He was a product in the TDK video commercial. I think that he would have liked being considered a marketable icon and assumed its ability to travel and be reproduced anywhere there is demand. The American market was exhausted, therefore he moved on to Japanese marketability. I think that Andy is not multicultural. The clip demonstrates Andy in radicant form. As he mouths Japanese language he plants new roots completely separate and unrelated to American culture from where he established and faded from popularity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good point Ian -- Warhol seemed to relish whatever ridiculous project presented itself to him. Toward the end he started messing with computers (Amiga) to make a digital version of his contrasty signature silkscreens.

    ReplyDelete