Yes Men, Cindy Sheehan, Nikky Lee

I really dig the Yes Men's work. It's a really funny and smart way to get people to start thinking. I like the fact that they don't just go for the obvious route of making obvious, blatant statements like "WTO is bad'. They wrap their message in the authority of the WTO and present it as an official package. This is the ultimate subversion. My only possible beef with their approach is that they do not give solutions to the problems they present. After people start asking questions, what's next? Then again, there are no easy solutions to these problems. I think it would have been great if the Yes Men had included some practical information into their performances.

Nikki Lee's work also involves impersonation. I think the process of her work, adopting clothes and mannerisms of a culture, raises alot of interesting questions about identity. Can you become someone else, just by acting like someone else? Is identity merely a series of performances? The authenticity conveyed in her photographs is what gets me. Along with the well-researched exterior, Nikky seems to have adopted the physical attitude of her target group. The way she carries herself is different according to the group. It really sucks to think that "I" is that mutable. How do you define someone if personality is just a compilation of transient traits?

Cindy Sherman's work is along the same lines as Nikki's. Sherman photographs herself in various makeup and clothing. Her work also brings up the same questions about acting. Is a human just a mixture of props, clothes, and hair? Her mimicry of movies also calls into the question the nature of reality. Her photographs have the quality of a constructed movie-reality, yet is reflects the real world. What's real, the object or the perception of the object?

Sell your dreams, thoughts, conversation.
Cash perfume.
Sell your heritage.
Stock market souls.
Company that adopts sells kids for higher price.
Make religion.
Government whorehouse

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Nikky Lee
Cindy sheeman
Yes men

Subvertisement

This is my magazine ad. It features Maya Angelou and its by Target. It's main appeal is Maya Angelou's endorsement and focuses on race. I think it's pretty tacky that a massive corporation like Target used Maya's image and heritage as a means to sell assorted products. I have a couple ideas for this ad.
1. Replace Maya with this:


Photoshop the kid's sign to become a red Target logo. I think it would be fitting because the original ad talks about the future of youths today.

2. Photoshop the picture of Malcolm X holding an AK and then have little Target tags hanging off everything, including the AK. The kind of tags that tell you what store you bought your clothes/furniture from.

3. Take a photo of a smiling African American kid and super impose a target on him.



This is my political Brochure. It's Chap Petersen and Mark Warner at a meeting, smiling. The layout is pretty simplistic to connotate a personal feel. I was thinking about playing off the caption by photoshopping Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel's god finger in place of Mark Warner.




My third thing is Peter Pan Peanut Butter. This is targeted at kids and adults, referencing the nostalgia of Peter Pan and childhood. Maybe I could photoshop the fairy to look like its trapped inside of the jar. Maybe have the fairy drowning in the peanut butter.

Obey

I like the concept of the random Obey GIANT stickers. The stylistic similarities to old-school propaganda make the viewer pause for a second and wonder what the hell it means. It brings up questions about the spaces we live in and the bombardment of visual communication we endure. I liked the effect of the stickers on billboards. The large, repeated "obey" subverts the advertisement completely.

Banksy

http://www.banksy.co.uk/outdoors/images/newerrats/RAT1.jpg

I really like this image. It's a rebellious but playful gesture. It made me question exactly how much of our individual rights and activities we hand over to anonymous signs. I also like the whole rat-race metaphor and how Banksy manages to subvert the negative connotations of deceitful, treacherous rat, into the symbol for an oppressed population that is FORCED to make deceitful and treacherous decisions.