2/26/2004 » Kitsch

(via Turbanhead) The pop art of Johan Manschot, the Dutch artist behind Diesel's Indian kitsch theme. His sensibilities are like those ubiquitous handbags with Indian cement factory ads plastered on the sides. But his work is arch, intelligent, it mines the pop culture colors of Bollywood film posters, Indian independence, Nehruvian socialism, and Indira Gandhi's population control campaign.

Connoisseurs of the pun will get a kick out of this one. Soccer fans will love FC Pradeshi. No surprise that Largikia, the Land of the Large People uses a Punjabi-looking fellow :) It’s a Chandrasekhar Azad bomb-thrower reference from the independence movement.

It doesn't feel exploitative on an art site the way it does on a T-shirt in a storefront window. Religious symbols are the touchiest, e.g. Sai Baba on a T-shirt.

The artist is also working on a book of Bollywood posters, the same design elements which make eating at Kati Roll so much fun. However, some of the low-budget videotape covers are poorly lit, poorly masked nightmares, like bad porn. It must come as a surprise to these designers that their hackiest work could be considered art.