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"Paintings are too hard. The things I want to show are mechanical. Machines have less problems. I'd like to be a machine, wouldn't you?" - Andy Warhol.
I've always had a soft spot for supermarkets. It was rather relaxing to stroll down the aisles in a big supermarket where the options of canned food and cup-o-noodles that you can buy are seemingly endless. For me, it even had a certain element of the "sublime". McDonalds made me feel like childhood, although my true childhood wasn't filled with trips to fast food chains. It is very difficult to pinpoint what exactly is the sentimental factor in these for me as nowdays fast food culture is seen as a rather soul-less aspect of consumerism (as it is ready made and impersonal ).
Perhaps it is odd to view fast food as "wholesome", as opposed to home-made food, which is usually the type of food that is considered warm, reassuring and homely. I thought that, perhaps, my love of fast food is connected to my interest in Americana visual culture as fast food is often associated with America and Americanization, or rather “McDonaldization”, as some researchers tend to call it. Perhaps I am buying into the propaganda of consumerism, created by the capitalistic regime. After all, my feelings are pretty much exactly what it tried to provoke- a sense of neediness for, and humanization of the world of things. But I think the effect of the "image" of fast food is rather phantasmic. The “memories” I have associated with it, aren’t mine but rather a net of influences and romanticism. Those memories of TV dinner and drive-throughs in small american towns, although highly romanticized and idealized, are still a safe haven containing dreamlike quality, a place both sad and soft, which places one in a childhood full of the kind of food which isn’t hard to understand, isn’t complex and tiring as adult life is, and is always near, always ready to comfort you.
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What I mean to say is that fast food isn't the warmth of reuniting with your family-kind-of happiness. It is a different kind of nostalgia, a nostalgia for the lonely.
Those feelings remind me of the pointillist creations of Jerry Wilkerson, and the realist and sometimes hyper realist art of Ralph Goings and Richard Estes as well as the pop art of Andy Warhol. Wilkerson's works feel "fuzzy", as they are a sub genre of impressionism - pointilism, and are truly an "impression" of the food which although is a concrete, meterialistic object, is broken into thousand of fine dots, making the item feel much more gentle than most people usually tend to see it as. But is it gentle? Or is it distorting? Is the item really there or is it an illusion created by a careful placement of fine dots? And again, what if it is? I think that this may be a good example of a memory "created" and not "born".
Those feelings remind me of the pointillist creations of Jerry Wilkerson, and the realist and sometimes hyper realist art of Ralph Goings and Richard Estes as well as the pop art of Andy Warhol. Wilkerson's works feel "fuzzy", as they are a sub genre of impressionism - pointilism, and are truly an "impression" of the food which although is a concrete, meterialistic object, is broken into thousand of fine dots, making the item feel much more gentle than most people usually tend to see it as. But is it gentle? Or is it distorting? Is the item really there or is it an illusion created by a careful placement of fine dots? And again, what if it is? I think that this may be a good example of a memory "created" and not "born".
(Jerry Wilkerson, source)
(Jerry Wilkerson, ??)
(Jerry Wilkerson, Soup Can (After Andy Warhol), source)
(Jerry Wilkerson, source)
The "reality" is almost real in hyper-realist works, but still, we feel odd, we know the place, the restaurant, the object, yet we don’t. Is this a portrait of consumerist reality today, or of loneliness which is encompassed for a second in the jouissance of being in a supermarket amongst comforting food? What does it mean to paint something machanical in a sense, soul-less even, in such complex techniques? Some will say that it is a critique of our current society and propaganda from a marxist point of view. However, doesn't fast food culture deserve our sympathy? Perhaps we are jealous of the fast food? Of its simplicity? Perhaps we deserve our own sympathy?
(Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Cans, 1962, source)
(Richard Estes, Double Self Portrait, 1976, source)
(Richard Estes, Food City, 1967, source)
(Richard Estes, Jone's Diner, 1979, source)
I feel that the "character" of Warhol really does resonate with me. On one hand, it is highly likely that Warhol was actually a critic of consumerist society (evident, for example, in his "Last Supper" series, where he mixed christian imagery with a consumerist-brand one) But he was also a participant in it. And he recognized this. Not only that, but he indulged (attended parties and was truly fond of celebrities). When asked for a reason as to why he painted Campbell's tomato soup cans, he simply and unapologetically said that he had eaten it every day for years. It was a close object, a tragic home.
In conclusion, I should mention my all time favorite video on Youtube. It is of Andy Warhol eating a hamburger. While the video wasn't Warhol's idea but the movie maker’s (although Warhol was fond of it indeed), the essence of this video resonates very deeply with the way I understand both Warhol's work and the sentimentality of fast food culture.
In conclusion, I should mention my all time favorite video on Youtube. It is of Andy Warhol eating a hamburger. While the video wasn't Warhol's idea but the movie maker’s (although Warhol was fond of it indeed), the essence of this video resonates very deeply with the way I understand both Warhol's work and the sentimentality of fast food culture.
P.s- This post is not intended as a deep analysis of the artists' works, but my own extremely personal interpretation.
