As part of our course work a small Christmas project was set, to make something in a new and different way, something that would not need any specific art materials and would not need studio time. Hmmm….
Like most students being creative during the holidays seemed as exciting as another Christmas dinner or watching another black and white film on television, the boredom of yet more furniture and sofa sale adverts, Dull. I was almost harassed in to the idea of the ubiquitous post Christmas sale banners and adverts, so, with this in mind I made an Andy Warhol / Isa Genzken inspired piece.
The general idea is to take left over packaging, ie a soup can and a couple of dozen sale labels and change the cans identity. Although instantly recognisable as a food can it ceases to be a container of a consumable and becomes a banner, but a banner selling what? nothing, an empty expression of sale having the labelling, contents, nutritional values, ingredients, bar codes, country of origin and price eliminated, it doesn’t describe or explain anything. The bottom of the can both inside and out also have the sale banner which would not normally be the case becoming a parody of itself. No longer useful as a container nor informative to a potential buyer, having no monetary value, discarded by the retailer and the consumer and certainly not now loved or missed.
Michael Palmer 