- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Phoenix and help keep the future of New Times free.
Its gotten so we dont even see them, the carefully placed product endorsements that are part of everyday life. On an episode of American Idol, Simon Cowell raises to his lips a monstrous neon tumbler emblazoned with the Coca-Cola logo, and what we see is a man taking a drink. Our nine-year-old brings home a report card slipped into an oddly colorful folder, and it takes us a moment to realize that the folder is an ad for a cellular telephone service.
Its this sort of crazed consumerism that is being explored in "Branded and on Display." The collection of paintings, sculptures, photographs, and assemblages urges us to reconsider consumer culture with an appraising eye and a new awareness.
In photographer Hank Willis Thomass Branded Head, a digital C-print mounted to Plexiglas, the Nike logo pops unashamedly from the shiny, bald head of an athlete. In Louis Camerons Universal, a giant bar code is projected onto an entire wall in the gallery. These and dozens of other logo-centric works plead with us, with humor and some small amount of disdain, to consider how our culture is defined by marketing, advertising, brand names, and billboards.
Wednesdays-Sundays. Starts: June 14. Continues through Sept. 21, 2008
Keep Phoenix New Times Free... Since we started Phoenix New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Phoenix with no paywalls.