Ottawa’s own Pop Life: Art in a Material World is designed to “highlight moments where art and life have collided” by featuring works that blur the lines that usually distinguish art, entertainment and the marketplace from one another, according to its opening statement.
The exhibit, organized by Tate Modern in association with the National Gallery of Canada is colourful, crazy and creative, evolving from the intertwined relationships of art, marketing and the mass media.
20 artists have work on display at Pop Life; each contributing several pieces to collective of more than 250 featured in the exhibit, which is on display until Sept. 19. Two powerful names from the Pop art movement that stand amongst the artists showcased, are that of Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons.
While Warhol has established himself as a Western household name, his contributions to this exhibit are derived more from the path he paved as a creator, than his actual physical art.
With the realization that sex sells, Warhol and others among this contemporary artistic movement, used this as a foundation for turning art into a business, prompting Warhol’s famous phrase “business is the best art.” This statement is the driving force behind both Warhol’s later career and this exhibit.
Advertising has publicized this exhibit but the explicit content in Pop Life is what has kept it on the tip of many tongues. Heritage Minister, James Moore says he outright rejects extensive participation in the exhibit, in stating to the media, “I’m not interested in seeing the exhibition any more than I have already.”
Jeff Koons is one of the artists responsible for the sexually explicit material that has stirred the Nation. He earned himself one of the two “adult-only” rooms with a piece that shows photographs of him and his wife having sex in fantastical locations.
It leads viewers to question whether silk-screened pornography can be deemed art.
Sexually explicit material is only one of many taboo subjects explored in this exhibit. Artists Rob Pruitt and Jack Earl forged a joint and highly controversial public persona that centres on sexuality and race through a visual story-telling method deemed “promiscuous endorsement.”
The duo is most famous for “Red, Black, Green, White and Blue” which is also on display. The exhibit is meant to blend African and American culture while promoting black power and civil rights with images of iconic figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Michael Jackson.
This unique piece was met with negative reviews from certain media outlets including the New York Times, who have condemned it as degrading because “black culture is summed up by these commercial, occasionally sexist images.”
Keith Haring had used the unsold advertising marquees in New York City subway stops for his chalk drawings before opening “Pop Shop,” recreated in the middle of the exhibit. Heavy rap music pounds through the re-creation with actual goods using the “merchandise as the medium,” according to the exhibit description.
In keeping with the exhibit themes, much of the merchandise features sensitive subject matter, such as a T-shirt with a dancing condom that exclaims “Safe Sex!”
It is the boundary pushing that gives Pop Art a very distinct aura. Every piece of art gives the viewer the sensation that the creation before them demonstrates the inner workings of the artist’s mind.
This allows the audience to feel an interaction with the artist, through their work, even if the work is not fully understood. This lack of understanding is part of what makes this exhibit unusual, and somewhat unexpected.