Cast your minds back. Sorry for some of you lucky ones that can’t go far enough back for my first two.
When advertising was allowed to advertise. The Hamlet advert was always a winner. The message for me as an 8-year-old, with the Venus de Milo advert, 1974 was that when things go wrong there is always a Hamlet. I never smoked Hamlet, but the amusement of the adverts over the years stays with me. At any time when something goes wrong “There is always Hamlet”. I would feel that maybe they were not targeting 8-year-olds but negotiated result none the less.
One advert that did take the dominate position when I was young was the Smash adverts. I even remember trying to convince my mum to buy it to save her time peeling the potatoes. The something new and futuristic approach for this wonder product.
With Easter approaching, it must be time to pick on the Easter Bunny. A few years back, I was oppositional to the Easter Egg advert that was put out by Cadburys. In fact I even felt strongly enough to complain to the ASA. The complaint had several factors, child safety being one. The advert was withdrawn not because of child safety or my actions but the sugar content. Someone else had a louder voice.
Having now looked back on the complaint I can see that I had not expressed my concerns well enough to be dominant so a message can flow both ways.
Trying to find the advert was hard as the one shown here is not the original, but adapted one. Many of their adverts have been pulled over the years which highlights the importance of checking your message not only that it means what you think but also does it mean something else.
As Giorgio de Chirico suggests “art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken it will enter the regions of childhood vision and dream.” 1 Is this, as adults something that we have lost?
With abstraction, the image may be unrecognisable or it may have elements that feel knowing, without being able to place it. When work is produced to have meaning then the aim is that it forms part of something bigger that provides a context, as very often the meaning of a single image can easily be lost, with the viewer being oppositional, due in part to the imaginative nature of the image. This is an aspect to investigate to create images that are abstract but actually control the viewer in a much greater way without having to fall back on titles. A reference such as ‘Sky on fire’ may be holding the viewer’s hand too much? These are all ways to develop and move forward.
Does the title of Light Fields affect the way you view the work of Taisuke Koyama pictured below?
I feel it important to try and enquire within one’s own mind to see if there are aspects of your own practice that may cause issues and create or allow for an oppositional position. Too often practitioners have blinkers on and because they have created the narrative that is all they see in their own work. To close, take a step back and use different eyes.
Figures
Fig 4 Taisuke Koyama, Light Fields https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Taisuke-Koyama-Light-Field-012-2015_fig1_323547732
Fig 1 Hamlet Cigars (Benson & Hedges) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIckHmwZAeI
Fig 2 Cadburys Smash 1970 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBRCZLzn5pM
Fig 3 Cadburys Easter Eggs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s15KOSoHP5c
Bibliography
1 Giorgio de Chirico, Mastery and Creation (before 1915) First published by Andre Breton in Surrealism and Painting, Paris 1928. Printed translation London Bulletin No6 October 1938 p14.
