05.18.2010
He's just kind of retarded
A couple of weeks ago, I caught elusive stencil-maniac Banksy’s documentary (mockumentary?), Exit Through the Gift Shop. For those who don’t know, the film focuses on the considerably less elusive Thierry Guetta, and his ultimate rise as street artist / con man / delusional crazy person, Mr. Brainwash. And aside from inspiring me to write run-on sentences that read more like indecipherable code than blog post leads, it got me thinking about how derivative pop art is. By definition, it utilizes imagery from pop culture, which includes pop art — it’s an endless cycle of recycling the same symbol, each time in a barely new, but equally pointless way. For example, a fafillion artists have appropriated Andy Warhol’s iconic silkscreen prints of Marilyn Monroe. And now it’s a fafillion and one.

What better way to comment on artwork that is derivative of artwork that was derivative of pop culture, than by making a derivative parody of it? So, please no more Monroe. And no more metaphysical shit while we’re at it.
There’s plenty of iconic imagery out there, just begging to be beaten to death. Let’s finally give this horse a break.

Right after this, obviously.