In the next few days the Japanese American National Museum will close a show that defies the typical associations with the traditional Japanese artistic culture; it is neither humble nor respectful. In comparison to the museum’s other current exhibit that showcases traditional Kokeshi dolls and their contemporary reinterpretations, Mike Shinoda’s “Exhibition Excess (Dies)” show does not hesitate to allure and play with the modern audience with its many attention-grabbing techniques.
A massive neon banner is suspended against the entrance of the museum. This advertisement is the first of many clues implying that the show that is in the rotating gallery is one of ostentation, consumerism, and as the exhibit’s title indicates, excess. As one approaches the show on the main floor, the viewer is confronted with a wall of multiple silkscreened posters that all have the same composition of three characters: two pop star-like dames and a skeleton. Objects of hedonism (rifle, snake, and cash) are attached to and celebrated by every character. Various expressions of the phrase “SELL-OUT!” deface every poster.
The irony of the show is that its Shinoda is part of the culture that he chooses to criticize, for he is better known as the lead singer of the Grammy-winning rock band Linkin Park. The introduction text to the show states that the idea behind the show came to the artist when he was on a world tour and noticed that, irrelevant of the culture, the notion of celebrity seemed to infiltrate people’s daily lives.
Exhibition Excess (Dies) opened on August 29th as a sequel to last year’s Exhibition Excess (Born) where the skeleton depicting an unnamed celebrity character, which ties the shows together, was introduced. Although I am unfamiliar with the first show, the overarching theme of the two-part series is the same, excess is flashy yet empty.
It seems that Shinoda tries to avoid the kitsch label that can easily be applied to a work that focuses on popular, easily digestible culture. After all, everyone knows that our society’s fascination with Brangelina number of children is ridiculous. What the artist does to stir clear of the sheer reiteration of sensationalism is use vanitas, a “16th-century European style of painting, a kind of still life with social commentary,” explains the artist. The skeleton motif therefore serves as a historical reference to the emptiness of human life and as a symbol for the poison of celebrity life.[i]
Upon entering the gallery, one is bombarded with two-wall sized amorphous shaped collage of tabloid cutouts. The impression that the “tentacles” of this creature will consume the viewer is rather effective. Shinoda therefore translates people’s everyday consumption of sensationalism into the monster. Like Richard Serra’s “Television Delivers People” suggests, the consumers are the ones being consumed. As the television both creates and perpetuates excess culture so do the tabloids that conjure audiences by the means of existing.
The rest of the show is filled with canvases that continue with the skull motif. Shinoda uses different media to convey his message. Near the exit of the exhibit Shinoda showcases the main character in a casket that is a reflection of the luxurious yet empty lifestyle that celebrities participate in and advertise. Parts of the casket as well as the skeleton itself are gilded as a way to emphasize the cheap glory of the subject matter. In addition, his employment of spray paint in both the canvases and the collage links lowbrow art such as graffiti to lowbrow byproducts of modern culture, such as celebrity sensationalism.
Furthermore, by focusing on modern culture and the seemingly meaningless entities, such as celebrities, that society cherishes Shinoda makes his art political. As Martha Rosler writes in her essay, “Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment,” the usage of video (mass media art and therefore, not high art) democratizes art and rebels against the status of art in the bourgeois society. Art is then no longer autonomous but is directly interlinked with life. More specifically, the article’s emphasis on the “politics of vision” that are democratized through “full human freedom in a state of illuminated consiousness and perception.” [ii]Similarly, Shinoda’s mixed-media show and its subject matter such as sensationalism unite art and the current patterns within culture and thus, through such a combination the artist is able to frame and elevate the celebrity fascination in a package ironically called “Glorious Excess” and then give it back to society with a focus on its emptiness.
However, Shinoda seems to fail in his ultimate design of the show, particularly with the usage of spray paint and the exhibits own commoditization of products associated with the show. Although the artist has used graffiti-associated media in his previous works it is unclear whether he is also putting the lowbrow art in the same category as what he criticizes. In addition, the display of a motorcycle before the entrance of the exhibit as well as the skateboard decks for sale in the museum’s bookstore simply perpetuate the emptiness of consumption that “Glorious Excess” criticizes.
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