Dante De La Vega - COFA1002

What is desire? And what does it mean to me and my pieces? Throughout my material investigations and getting inspired by different artists, I looked into the world of simplicity vs premium. One part of me wanted to procrastinate and hopefully an idea pops into my head without experimenting, which usually happens. Therefor I have a stubborn attitude towards what I want to create vs how to create the idea. Artist Meschac Gaba showed me the idea of how a simple product of refined sugar can be skilfully and beautifully sculpt a city. “With Sweetness, Gaba has created a proverbial ‘global village’ out of refined sugar–a simple substance we largely take for granted.” (Gaba, 2009). Society constantly and unconsciously use man made refined products for granted, not knowing that these products are usually a want in life not a need. Man has taken these simple items to further progress in life, to create wealth, harmony and to make life that little bit easier. In the 21st century, people design and create desires from these little materials and present them to society in a way that people give in to persuasion based on numerous life factors (e.g. Upbringing, friends, family, interests, sex, sexuality and many more). Understanding semiotics, humans have attached meaning towards lifeless items and to label the world of what we know today. Why is gold precious? When gold was found, it was not seen as an expensive item to trade but a new material to examine. It’s only when gold was getting familiarised that man decided to apply meaning and worth to it. After successfully locating more simple art pieces made and / coated from exotic materials, unfortunately I could not locate the artist but only to drown in re-blogs without poster crediting the original artist. This further inspired me to experiment with simple materials and somehow create something exotic. To show different levels of desire, how corporate scums puts an emphasis on what is a need in everyday life. This links to my first assignment, to display an alert through a poster to raise what companies are pushing on us. To brainwash through technology and popular brands. The debate of ‘Is print advertising an art’? What is the purpose? Interpretation? Meaning? And expressions? In my defence, print advertising can be an art piece. Given the tools of creating colour, shapes, give life to a blank canvas and to present multiple meanings on how the viewer sees it. Forget about if the visual is trying to sell something, to look beyond the persuasive marketing techniques and to admire the creation of the colours and shapes fits together as a whole piece. My three works consists of one simple man made product: glitter. My idea was to make simple products / actions become luxurious, expensive and desirable. The three are: Popcorn, toothpaste and criminal activities. The colour of the glitter is gold, this ties down to what society perceives as precious and valuable. To desire what is not the desired norm. As the three pieces all present and exhibit different meanings to different viewers, the unity of premium and quality speaks out. Popcorn: To make a basic food item…. a premium product? How can something so basic become luxury? Answer: To paint the popcorn in precious metal colours. Relating back to semiotics, gold and silver is seen as expensive, stylish and premium. To further more make it premium, add an above average price tag and advertise it. Worked for Apple. Tooth Paste: Another basic necessity, using gold glitter paste as the applicator the toothpaste item has now become an exceptional, high class item to purchase. Using my own mouth as the model, I have emphasised only my mouth, to express the significance of the effects the toothpaste. Happy smile, happy mouth. Finger Paints: To mix criminal activity with style. Sends out a simple message to parents, children usually get caught painting on other surfaces than their own piece of paper, if they get caught at least they’re getting caught in style. This in relation to glitter, to highlight premium other than normal paint. Works Cited Bryan, L 2015, Would Buy These Crazily Priced Regular Items?, accessed 10 September 2015, <http://www.viralands.com/expensive-everyday-items/1?utm_source=SkyLikes&utm_medium=CPC&utm_campaign=sky&SkyLikes=4066&c_s=AU> Creative Bloq, 2014, Pop Art: 8 artists every designer should know, accessed 9 September 2015, <http://www.creativebloq.com/art/pop-art-8133921> Gaines, K 2012, Selling Art: Creative and Artistic Advertisements, accessed 10 September 2015, <http://www.noupe.com/design/selling-art-creative-and-artistic-advertisements.html> UCCA, 2009, Meschac Gaba: Sweetness, accessed 9 September 2015, <http://ucca.org.cn/en/exhibition/meschac-gaba-sweetness/> 

People have different opinions if advertising is art or if there is some type of ‘art’ piece in an advertising piece is it art? I found a few pieces which I believe advertisements can contain art to have a dual effect: selling and expressing art.

Experimenting The idea was to glorify or make basic items have a premium feel to it. I got some popcorn and decided if painting them silver / gold glitter would make them feel or look more appealing. Having inspiration from Meschac Gaba, turning something simple to beautiful, wonder If I can take this idea and turn it into my own work. I did brush my teeth with the gold glitter paint, and that is revealed in my final works.

Sexualising products, different approach to marketing? Continuation of product investigation. I photoshopped the name of the product and described it in a way that may / will be related to intimacy. Playing on the popular saying: “sex sells”, well...... can these products sell? Worked for MasterFoods (that was a product I found in Woolies 2 years ago.....) Sex and sexualisation can be debated that it’s a very controversial topic or a very interesting / comfortable topic. In advertising, most of the products are sexualised in a subtle way to attract potential buyers or new audiences. For example: men shaving cream, the men are usually masculine, have chiseled face features and shirtless? Why do they need to be shirtless? Men ‘desire’ to  want to look like the man in the ad. Same goes with women’s leg waxing ads: sexy long legs, wearing only a towel.

The products above (if you haven’t guessed them) are; - Chanel Purse - Sony Cyber-Shot Camera - Samsung TV - iPhone We know the shape, colour, price point and other elements that we recognise in a brand due to advertising, word-of-mouth, media and popularity. But what if brands never existed and consumers are forced to buy based on build quality, craftsmanship, specs and aesthetics. Would the world be in a more stabalised place?

Continuing from my assessment one poster, looking into corporate persuasions and consumer impulses. I may target mainstream brands and design a zombie consumer type work. We’ll see. Just need gather few more ideas, inspiration and experiments......

Would You Eat It? Desire Looking at items I can use, I found spray paint and fruit and the simple question I asked myself: “would someone eat it if it’s a different colour?” I spray painted the fruits red, then asked myself the question. The answer was ‘yes’. I thought I would be turned off by the colour but I then realised that I knew the inside was still fresh and edible, so I cancelled myself out of the question. I asked my brother and he replied: “I would eat the apple because it looks sweeter even though it’s painted. The others, no because it’s not their natural colour.”

In-Class Material Investigation: Make an Item for the Body Isabella issyartdesign and I decided to create a tiara and bracelet on what little material we had in-class. We decided to make jewellery to express ‘desire’ in a way that society does not have to conform to factory made jewellery and home-made jewellery can still give the same satisfaction. It was fun making these, had quite a few laughs with the people on our table and collectively decided similar creations.

Assignment One - A2 Poster Statement Minimalistic and simplicity. Gradual progression of life’s simple ‘desires’. The exploration through generations and to stereotype the passive influential behaviour ones want and needs throughout life. The evolution of generations (shown by hands at the bottom, starting from the left – infant then teen, 20’s, 30’s middle and older right) intentionally reveal the common desires and the persuasions products have on consumer impulses. The hands at the top symbolises the one responsible for the bottom hands desire(s). Assumptions may be made that the top hands are an act of force and persuasion to the receiver but one side will need other side to function together effectively. Inspiration came from personal connections, experiences and the intentional brainwash marketing I received from the media. Desire: a strong emotional feeling to relate to one’s deficiency of self-worth and acceptance. We obtain emotional and physical things that fill a void that may or may not exist. It’s a life journey to find the things we need to successfully fill that void but at the end of the day, was it successful? The emotional investment, time and money are spent sourcing these key elements all because of the idea of always in need of searching for something different, something that the media wants us to need not want in one’s life. Exploration of social and cultural issues are revealed. My work produces common iconic symbols to reveal how the most recognisable brands dominate not only the persuasive power these companies have but collaborating them to express global domination in the younger / mid generations. With each generation I showed colour representations. Red signifies passion, excitement and love while darkish-green indicates greed and charged emotions. These colours were intentional chosen to represent the emotions to project what I am trying to convey in my work. Dante De La Vega :)

This was my poster concept sketch approx 1.5 weeks ago. They’re not trees, they’re hands lol. Basic Idea: To stereotype current generations into what they commonly ‘desire’ in life. Baby: bottle, teen: smartphone, 20′s: money and 30′s: love. Upon creating it in Photoshop, it wasn’t I had in mind and I was about to ditch my idea. A lot of fiddling, ideas and photos were not matching up. The background is Sydney (if you can make it out, it’s the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House) but I didn’t like how I edited it. I wanted my piece to be minimalistic as I have always loved minimalistic designs. Anywhoo, I decided to research again and find inspiration art pieces, and finally I created something I am happy with. Which is my next post of my final assignment 1 poster.