Compare to… – Info Page

Statement (Products)

Compare to… addresses issues of visual brand conformity and its exploitation and perpetuation of packaging design as a powerful visual signifier in popular culture.  Partially inspired by Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup cans, Brillo boxes and Coca Cola paintings, these images present the viewer with generic, store-brand, or off-brand products that visually play off the packaging design of major, well-established brands.  As Warhol sought to show the cultural significance of long-established brands, Compare to… seeks to take the idea a step further with lesser known brands riding the visual coat-tails of the major ones.

The repetitious imprinting of particular colors, shapes and packaging designs helps to establish certain visuals as signifiers for a product – or, more importantly, a brand.  The visual cues that indicate Windex, for instance, have become the visual cues that indicate all glass cleaners.  The advertising aesthetic of the pieces (often with no brand represented) is intended to call into question whether consumers are being sold a physical product or the immaterial concept of the brand.

Prints come in two edition sizes, 70×56″ and 25×20″.

Statement (Lists)

This part of the Compare to… project deals with the semantics of commercialized popular culture. The visual signifiers (typeface, color, packaging, graphics) have been unified asking the viewer to relate to these words based solely on their relationship to the other words in the list. These words may (bold), or may not (proquad), carry a meaning beyond the item they have come to represent. By taking these words out of their usual context, the project seeks to peel back some of the layers that empower this type of language.

Panels measure 72×22 inches. Media is aluminum with paint or baked enamel. Panels float off the wall about one inch through the use of a back frame.