Ecstatic surface design

January 11, 2013 1:33 AM

Pinar & Viola are two Dutch post-internet artists whose work explores new totalitarian impulses and the decadence of global culture through what they call "ecstatic surface design". Pinar Demirdag and Viola Renate’s latest work takes inspiration from popular culture to lambast the absurdity of contemporary society using beach towels. They also cover Turkey's anti-evolutionist showgirls and interpret Frieze through Instagram. NSFW&Sanity warning before... Our website refers to little gif animations, kittens, lolcats, ‘Welcome to my homepage’, glitter, all the little decorations that make our daily lives more beautiful and joyful.
posted by infini (13 comments total)

this article about seapunk seems applicable.
posted by jonbro at 3:18 AM on January 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

Clearly, they hate my eyes, but whatever. COME AT ME BRO.
posted by louche mustachio at 4:42 AM on January 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Look at how transgressive this aaaaart is! Look at it! Do you not see how the decadent Western consumer-capitalist society is being mercilessly skewered and lampooned with these ... with these ... (suppressed giggle) beach towels? Look!

What do you mean this is "twee, pretentious crap"? How can you say that? We are post-Internet! Yes, POST-INTERNET! Yes, that means the Internet is over, and we are ... hey, where are you going? Come back!
posted by kcds at 5:17 AM on January 11, 2013 [5 favorites]

...and then I looked up their client list,

include Bloomberg Businessweek, Nike, Adidas, Diplo -MAD Decent, Brenmar, Bols Genever, Kesselskramer, GVB (Municipal transport company of Amsterdam), Aynouk Tan, Anafocus, VPRO (Dutch public broadcast channel), BULLETT, SPRB, This is Chorus, Beth Shalom Synagogue, Cobra Museum and Stedelijk Museum. Aside from commercial projects, we also work as trend consultants.
posted by infini at 5:31 AM on January 11, 2013

Needs more work to be a weak joke. Perhaps that's the point; but forming an opinion is otiose.
posted by hawthorne at 6:25 AM on January 11, 2013

I am also post internet.

Look! I just posted again!
posted by indubitable at 6:25 AM on January 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wait, the Internet's over? When did this happen?!? Why wasn't I informed?

Is there a site that will tell me if the Internet is still a thing or not?
posted by Naberius at 7:08 AM on January 11, 2013

So... they recreated a MySpace page on a towel, using generic stock art (kittens, browser icons, and a Standard Issue White Guy). And then they took MySpace-style "look at how sexy I am" cellphone-mirror shots of a woman wrapped in the towel.

And this is considered "post-internet" art.

.
posted by caution live frogs at 7:19 AM on January 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I really had no idea what to do with the phrase "post-internet" so I found this seemingly somewhat random blog post about it but at least it helped me understand what people are going for.

I admit I only read like half of it but it helped (p.s. it doesn't mean the internet is over) but it's really long okay
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 7:45 AM on January 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Here I probably should have just put this here. About the term 'post-internet" from a blog:

[...] What about what we mean when we say “Internet” changed so drastically that we can speak of “post Internet” with a straight face?

On some general level, the rise of social networking and the professionalization of web design reduced the technical nature of network computing, shifting the Internet from a specialized world for nerds and the technologically-minded, to a mainstream world for nerds, the technologically-minded and grandmas and sports fans and business people and painters and everyone else. Here comes everybody.

Furthermore, any hope for the Internet to make things easier, to reduce the anxiety of my existence, was simply over—it failed—and it was just another thing to deal with. What we mean when we say “Internet” became not a thing in the world to escape into, but rather the world one sought escape from…sigh…It became the place where business was conducted, and bills were paid. It became the place where people tracked you down.

[...]

Accompanying this change in what we mean when we say “Internet,” there was a change in what we mean when we say “art on the Internet” and “post Internet art” served as shorthand for this change.

posted by six-or-six-thirty at 7:51 AM on January 11, 2013

See, I had that Turkish thing bookmarked for ages but the lolcats found and dragged me down a glittering rabbit hole of postInternetTraumaticEyeburn. Then of course I had to share that nerve wracking experience.
posted by infini at 8:02 AM on January 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wait, the Internet's over? When did this happen?!? Why wasn't I informed?

I can’t believe you’re still here, lame. I’m only here ironically.
posted by bongo_x at 10:59 AM on January 11, 2013

If you scroll down their images, the stained glass design stands out.
posted by ovvl at 4:46 PM on January 11, 2013