Objects of Desire: Photography and the Language of Advertising
Objects of Desire: Photography and the Language of Advertising
Objects of Desire: Photography and the Language of Advertising traces the artistic manipulation of advertising, the most powerful, mainstream visual language. Since the 1970s, creative innovations led to dramatic shifts in the possibilities for photography as artistic expression, as photo-based artists reworked advertising strategies to challenge the increased commodification of daily life, and later to appropriate the command these images have over the viewer/consumer. By exploiting advertising’s visual vocabulary and adopting its sites and formats, and through re-photography, appropriation, and simulation, artists create a shared photographic language that puts the onus on the viewer to determine what exactly these pictures are asking of us.
Participating artists include Adbusters, Lucas Blalock, Victor Burgin, Jo Ann Callis, Sarah Charlesworth, Sara Cwynar, Victoria Fu, Sanja Iveković, Elad Lassry, Roe Ethridge, Robert Heinecken, Barbara Kruger, Carter Mull, Pat O’Neill, Kim Schoen, Sandy Skoglund, Mitchell Syrop, and Hank Willis Thomas, among others.
This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Generous support is provided by Contemporary Collectors Orange County. Additional support provided by Andrew Kohler and Michael Koch.
All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund. Major annual support is provided by Meredith and David Kaplan, with generous annual funding from Kevin J. Chen, Louise and Brad Edgerton, Edgerton Foundation, Emily and Teddy Greenspan, Mary and Daniel James, Justin Lubliner, Jennifer and Mark McCormick, Kelsey Lee Offield, Koni and Geoff Rich, Jen Rubio and Stewart Butterfield, Lenore and Richard Wayne, and Marietta Wu and Thomas Yamamoto.
Image: Sandy Skoglund, Luncheon Meat on a Counter, 1978, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds, provided by Lynda and Robert M. Shapiro, © Sandy Skoglund, digital image courtesy of the artist
- Sep 4–Dec 18, 2022
- BCAM, Level 2
This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Generous support is provided by Contemporary Collectors Orange County. Additional support provided by Andrew Kohler and Michael Koch.
All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund. Major annual support is provided by Meredith and David Kaplan, with generous annual funding from Kevin J. Chen, Louise and Brad Edgerton, Edgerton Foundation, Emily and Teddy Greenspan, Mary and Daniel James, Justin Lubliner, Jennifer and Mark McCormick, Kelsey Lee Offield, Koni and Geoff Rich, Jen Rubio and Stewart Butterfield, Lenore and Richard Wayne, and Marietta Wu and Thomas Yamamoto.
Image: Sandy Skoglund, Luncheon Meat on a Counter, 1978, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds, provided by Lynda and Robert M. Shapiro, © Sandy Skoglund, digital image courtesy of the artist
Media
Hawaii(23) is a 23-minute video that focuses on the production of "book blanks" in a factory in Germany. An interview with proprietor Thomas Moser, documentary footage of his factory and the manufacture of empty volumes is intercut with stock footage sourced from the titles of these books.
