Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Holly Bait

''“Kitsch” has become a byword in the culture for anything over-the-top or tacky. In art, it’s meaning is more specific. It refers to works trafficking in facile, base or false emotions—most often sentimentality—and whose imagery is off-the-shelf and formulaic, a debased version of a once-original aesthetic idea. Need to conjure that warm-and-fuzzy feeling? Cue the fiery sunset. Looking to express fragile innocence? Bring on the shoeless urchin carrying the bird with the broken wing."

"Totalitarian kitsch puts those ideas in the service of the state. It is the official art of authoritarian governments, aimed at extending state control through propaganda. Totalitarian kitsch exists to glorify the state, foster a personality cult surrounding the dictator and celebrate ceaseless and irrevocable social and economic progress through images of churning factories and happy, exultant workers. It does so using the corrupted language of academic realism—heavily muscled supermen and women and colossal scale."

-From an article in the Wall Street Journal on ''Totalitarian kitsch".

2 comments:

Holly said...

It's hard for me to say this. Really hard. But.... I love that stuff. I know it's insane and atavistic or something, but I adore totalitarian kitch. I really do.

Rufus said...

No, that's alright. I was just thinking last night that it might be fun to write a play that was pure propaganda. "Lifestyle in the Pure Paradise of Canadian Governance" or something similar.