Exhibition
Brand Art Sensation - A Mass Debate
9 Jun 2015 – 13 Jun 2015
Event times
11am - 6pm, 9th - 13th June 2015
Cost of entry
Free
Address
- 14 Percy Street
- Fitzrovia
- London
- W1T 1DR
- United Kingdom
Travel Information
- Nearest tube stations: Googe Street, Tottenham Court Road
Zaniol’s exhibition calls into question three British influential art personalities Hirst, Emin and Perry and compares them to luxury fashion brands.
The show, a parody advertising campaign showcases the launch of three perfumes as if they had been commissioned by these three luxury ‘fashion houses’. The perfume bottles and their fragrances, reference each of the artist’s brand essence.
About
Brand Art Sensation: a Mass Debate
A solo exhibition and public forum parodying celebrity art and luxury branding by Giulia Zaniol.
The show, taking place at Gallery Different, Fitzrovia calls into question three of Britain’s most influential art personalities; Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry and how they have blurred the lines between luxury labels and fine art.
Zaniol has developed a brand name for each one - Diamonds & Heist, Eminent and Miss Clair and created special fragrances and sculptures of perfume bottles that reflect her interpretation of each artist’s ‘brand essence’. The parody follows celebrity brand endorsement and upmarket retail models. Luxury brands associate themselves with the A-list to appear exclusive; similarly these artists use their celebrity status to enhance their artworks’ allure. Most of the profit made by upmarket brands comesfrom the sale of accessories and perfumes, which are the few affordable goods available to the masses. Zaniol theorises the transformation of high art and artists entrepreneurship into luxury ventures exaggerating the commerciality of contemporary art with her fragrances.
The launch of Brand Art Sensation will be supported by a series of billboards, shown both as part of the exhibition and across the streets of London. These ”ads”, along with a social media strategy and spoof video adverts, will ask the public to join a debate at www.zaniol.com/mass-debate , discussing luxury art and the emergence of the celebrity-seeking ‘artist-entrepreneur’.
Zaniol comments; “I was struck by the evident similarities and intertwining nature of artist celebrity ‘labels’ belonging to the high art market and luxury fashion brands. I have been acting as an artist entrepreneur myself for this project, and we [artists] have now more opportunities than ever, but I am concerned about the Neo-capitalist approach and its soulless commodity investment market and how it is effecting the art world: not everything about it is good. Therefore I wanted to open a debate on these very complex aspects and hear what the public has to say.”