The
Suave Promise, Decision Theory, the Origin of AARTCorp and,
of course, the Eleventy
I
find it at once interesting, disturbing and beautiful that
we, as intelligent human beings and consumers, are expected
to be complicit in maintaining the illusion that corporations
and advertisers are concerned for our happiness and well-being.
We are confronted daily with advertisements loaded with imagery
of smiling faces presented as either employees or users of
the products and services being advertised. We know that the
smilers have been paid to smile, that they are not who they
appear to be - they are not satisfied consumers or joyful
employees - they are models whose job it is to deceive us.
The smiling lady in the lab coat is a lie. She does not work
for AARTCorp, nor does she use any AARTCorp products, but
her image is clearly intended to imply that she is an employee
of AARTCorp and is ecstatic as a direct result. AARTCorp must
be a fabulous and satisfying place to work - happy employees
making wonderful products to make YOU happy.
We
love the lie.
We
want to believe it so badly that we insist on being lied to.
We will not consume your products if you do not tell the lie
and tell it well.
The
Suave Promise is a series of paintings based
on the truth within the lie, the title blatantly stolen from
the back of a bottle of Suave shampoo. In the paintings I
am happily using my favorite products. I am using only products
which I actually own and use on a regular basis. I am simultaneously
advertising myself, my artwork and the products I use, like
a Lance
Armstrong endorsement of Stinger Energy Waffles. The paintings
draw our attention to the disconnect between the artist and
the commercial world. Artists enjoy the public perception
that they are ascetic, eccentric rejecters of the status quo,
functioning on a different(higher?) wavelength - yet we are
consumers nonetheless. Artists consume a set of products,
using those products for personal hygiene, to create artwork,
establish their identities and affect how others perceive
them, just as we all do. The Suave Promise de-mystifies the
artist. The Suave Promise claims, "We are not like you,
yet we are the same."
AARTCorp(silent
'a', like aardvark) and the AARTCorp web site are part of
the Suave Promise project. I created a site that resembles
more a corporate portal than an artist's showcase. I like
the idea of artists being one person art-making corporations.
Like it or not, that is what we are. My product does not come
in a squeezable tube, it is not mass-produced nor is there
a blueprint or technical diagram used in it's creation, but
it is every bit as much a consumer product as toothpaste and
plasma tv's.
Decision
Theory is the title of an ongoing series of
paintings of everyday people behaving how they choose to behave
when given the opportunity to be the subject of a painting.
The subjects usually are people I know and have chosen because
I believe they are likely to choose to behave in an interesting
way, but receive no direction from me as to their attire or
behavior. The paintings are figure studies and behavior studies,
making them modern with a classical execution.
The
Eleventy is an ongoing series of paintings based
on a fictitious (non)religion.
-Dave
Braun, 2010
