Vladlena Gromova

Born in 1983. Lives in Petrozavodsk. Student at the International Slavic Institute, Design Faculty. The winner of “Kandinsky Prize 2007” in “Young Artist of the Year” nominee

Поп-арту посвящается

In the opinion of Pop-artists, each object, each thing may become a work of art. Things united in a composition lose their ordinary meanings and acquire new ones. The image of Marylyn Monroe, made by Warhol more than forty years ago and which became canonic, is to this day still being exploited by artists and advertisers. It transformed from a symbol of popularity into an immortal symbol of replication, living or, rather, endlessly dying and returning to life anew, independently of the author who created it. The image of Monroe does not live as an image of an actress, but as an advertising picture, a product of the conveyor-belt production of “deities” in Hollywood. The fate of Andy Warhol’s works in some way repeats the fate of the actress. The making of symbols out of artistic images leads to their characteristics being seen everywhere, even in objects and phenomena remote from them. Thus, for example, an urn with a plastic bag protruding out of it gives rise to associations with the picture of Marylyn in a “fluttering” skirt. On the one hand it has nothing in common with the symbol of female sexuality, on the other hand this symbol, after being used many times, loses its true meaning and when endlessly replicated it turns into rubbish. In the video “Dedicated to Pop-Art” a rubbish bin is transformed into Pop-Art or, rather, already into Post Pop-Art, meanwhile hinting at the true meaning of this movement and its significance. Almost half a century ago Warhol’s Monroe replaced the Mona Lisa, and now anything can take its place, even an urn, luring one into the depths of “rubbish” love to the sound of the song “I Wanna Be Loved By You”. The image which in some sense corresponds to contemporary values, in which the object of love isn’t only not associated with the female image, but may not even bear any relation to the human in principle.
What will endless replication and copying lead to, and is there a limit beyond which there is no life for the brand, or does “yet another death” make it stronger? Maybe the Pop-Art images created based on the stereotypes of public consciousness follow the changes of these stereotypes, until they themselves change to the point of being unrecognisable, having turned into a new brand, continuing to react to public demand.

Владлена Громова. Поп-арту посвящается. 2007. Видео. 1’30”. Сourtesy автор / Vladlena Gromova. To pop-art devoted. 2007. Video. 1’30”. Сourtesy author