The art of Laurie Hogin
January 4, 2008 10:11 PM   Subscribe

Monkey Portraits: Allegories of Brand Loyalty, by Laurie Hogin. [Via Right Some Good.]

Hogin was previously mentioned here and here.
posted by homunculus (10 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 


monkey portraits!? for me!?! aw, you shouldn't have!

but i sure am glad you did! thanks, homunculus.
posted by CitizenD at 12:16 AM on January 5, 2008


On the photography side, check out Jill Greenberg's Monkey Portraits.

Also available as a book, handy for those of us with opposable thumbs.

And while you're at it, Andrew Zuckerman's Creature is also quite coffee table-rific.
posted by dakotadusk at 12:17 AM on January 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


Oops - Greenberg previously Metafiltered here. My late night searching skills are a bit out of synch with my need to share. This makes dating awkward.
posted by dakotadusk at 12:23 AM on January 5, 2008


Beats the monkey portraits you find on eBay.
posted by rottytooth at 6:21 AM on January 5, 2008


These paintings comment on the phenomenon of social identities as constructed by consumerism in the 21st century economy, with it’s proliferation of products and services that seek the loyalty if not the very sense of identity of their consumers through various “branding” strategies: logo, color, slogan, sound, naming, and association with “lifestyle”.

Wah?
posted by zach4000 at 8:10 AM on January 5, 2008


ooh, those are such interesting paintings. Campy and disturbingly sumptuous. She is really intense in her message:

the painterly style, as well as the composition, color, and narrative, are meant to simultaneously evoke visual strategies from the history of European portraiture, Dutch still life, and contemporary advertising. They are all sets; variations on a theme that vary in color, pattern, accessories, emotional states, or the orientation of the monkey. This is a reiteration of the current marketing trend to present the consumer with a taxonomy of product, suited to the specific moods or minutely differing preferences of the brand-loyal consumer. For example, Dawn dishwashing liquid comes in five colors, each with a different title, fragrance, and attendant mythology, such as “Fresh Rain” or “Spring Blossoms”.

posted by nickyskye at 8:13 AM on January 5, 2008


Well, zach4000, all that's a key piece of the artist's branding strategy -- slogan, naming, association -- designed to seek the loyalty -- if not the very sense of identity -- of gallery owners and patrons. Those aren't portraits of monkeys you're buying. They're comments on the phenomenon of consumerism-constructed social identities.

A little too colorful for my walls, and the subjects are too menacing, but sure, I can see those hanging in somebody's living room.
posted by notyou at 8:34 AM on January 5, 2008


Her artistic progression reminds me a little of Louis Wain....
posted by extrabox at 9:50 AM on January 5, 2008


That's painfully heavy handed stuff. And a statement written in a first year grad student meets Unabomber style doesn't help matters . . .

Extrabox: I had the same thought! Not only is the progression similar (though I think the more abstract images represent her earlier work) the subject matter is about the same.
posted by aladfar at 10:06 AM on January 5, 2008


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