Dear , have you heard the expression ‘Kitsch Like’? ‘Kitsch’ was a slang that referred to vulgar cheap imitations at around the 19th century.

However, at about the middle of the 20th century, as pop art of Andy Warhol became popular and the boundary between high-class culture and public culture collapsed, it has become and loved as an art genre that encompasses diversified industrial areas, including fashion, art and advertisement, etc.

Kitsch is characterized mainly by the use of vivid colors, individualistic as well as exaggerated designs, and rustic class B sensibility. This offers varicolored insights even from the perspectives of Color, Material, and Finish (CMF). Part 1 of the April edition of the hïda Newsletter introduces cases of Kitsch that have been melted into 3 categories, namely, fashion & beauty, lifestyle, and art & culture, under the core keyword of ‘Kitsch Like’ in Part 1. 

Art & Culture

King of Kitsch, Balloon Dogs of Jeff Koons

A short while ago, the incident of ‘Balloon Dogs’, a representative work of a globally renowned modern artist Jeff Koons, being shattered due to the negligence of a viewer in the exhibition hall caused an enormous commotion in the art world. It was reported that some collectors offered to purchase the shattered pieces of this work valued at $42,000 (approximately 55 million KRW) to the gallery.

Jeff Koons is also referred to with numerous nicknames, including the successor of Andy Warhol, the king of kitsch and the most expensive modern artist, etc. His representative work, ‘Balloon Dogs’, is characterized by a smooth surface to the extent of being able to reflect the images of viewers, thereby appearing like a balloon. It is said that numerous other animal versions, including elephant, rabbit and snake in addition to the dog exist. 

His works produces a highly ‘Kitsch Like’ and mischievous ambience through the use of vivid colors, and materials including stainless steel and ceramics, etc. in general. In order to realize metal CMF, the format of coating the subject with silver color before applying top coating with the desired color, it is used widely. This is similar to the CMF format that has been used extensively for muscle cars that were highly popular in the USA during the 80’s~90’s.

Lifestyle

Airport and basketball court, turned into artwork

‘Groupe ADP’ that owns and manages key international airports of France redecorated a portion of the terminal into a differentiated CMF for tourists and transfer passengers visiting Paris, the city of arts. Hound tooth check was applied to the bench with a characteristic sense of volume by reflecting the airplane patterns. Mushroom-shaped lightings using aluminum as the material, reminiscing ambiences in the era of the 1920’s, are situated in various locations and the waste baskets are made by recycling the trollies that were actually used in the planes. Points were given in the washroom through the use of composed blue color and terrazzo pattern to produce a jaunty ambience. ‘Kitsch-likeness’ is expressed by means of patterns and exaggerated silhouette of the structures, etc. through renewal, and a refined feeling is endowed by appropriately adjusting chroma and sense of reflection.

Aged basketball courts that have been with the local areas throughout their history are reborn as artworks.

The wireframe court, the installation artwork through collaboration between ‘Cyril Lancelin’, a French architect cum artist, and ‘Trajectoire Studio’, a creative group, totally eliminated the image of the sports stadium. A ‘Kitsch Like’ and dreamy ambience was produced through the use of neon colors, and a fence was erected around the court using nut-shaped tubes to allow audiences to lean on them freely and be protected from the ball and players by standing behind it.

Fashion & Beauty

Shoes of the leading character of comic summoned to reality

Anyone interested in fashion would have heard the term ‘kitsch look’. The fashion industry has been introducing a wide range of ‘kitsch look’ items by utilizing diversified CMF technologies. ‘MSCHF’, an artist group based in Brooklyn, USA, brought up an issue by launching ‘Kitsch Like’ ‘Big Red Boots’, so called ‘Atom Shoes’, in last February. The boots, in spite of the ludicrous design and very high price of $350 (approximately 450,000 KRW), was sold out within several minutes of launching and its resell price increased to more than 4 times its recommended retail price.

Take a pause here for a second! ‘Blow Molding’, a technique for blowing air into the item, is used mainly for boots made of TPU material like this. When the material to be molded is inserted into cold mold and compressed air is injected into the said material through the pipe connected to the material, the material expands and then solidifies upon contact with cold mold. In addition to the boots, numerous other boots using characters firmly engraved in our memory such as Sailor Moon and Hulk, etc. drew attention of the general public in the past, illustrating the extent of enthusiasm of the people towards kitsch fashion.

In addition, fashion utilizing ‘Trompe l‘oeil·(visual trickery)’, a surrealistic expression technique, is being mentioned as a trend for this year. A wide range of global brands, including Glenn Martes, Balmain, JW Anderson, and Gucci, etc. introduced looks overflowing with individualism and wittiness by inserting a drawing of a body part or printing that induces the illusion that it is a real thing by adding an unexpected photo or 3-dimensional silhouette.

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