souvenirs

These images feature mass-produced tourist souvenir spoons, each scanned at high resolution. Their necks and bowls removed using Photoshop, only the kitsch plastic crests remain, each proclaiming an object or place: Mount Rushmore … the oil refineries of Edmonton … exotic destinations like Hawaii or Barbados. Each crest also sports a lustrous regalia, recalling the heraldic and decorative traditions of European imperial power. The results are visually exciting, the magnification revealing what the naked eye otherwise misses: imperfections, wear, air bubbles. Removed from their original function as teaspoons, these crests become potent symbols for the transmission of cultural myths.
SERIES 1. COLONIAL POSSESSIONS
The idealization of tropical “destinations” enjoys a long and troubling history in art extending back to Paul Gauguin and earlier. The kitsch-images in this series explore the exoticized island paradise, from the farthest-flung outposts of the European empires to the Jimmy Buffett-inflected fantasy universe of today’s tourist enclaves.

Souvenirs (Series 1. Colonial Possessions)
Inkjet prints (variable dimensions, from 18” x 24” to 36” x 48”)
2014–15
SERIES 2. MOUNT RUSHMORE
I was able to acquire a number of spoons featuring this theme. Representations of this “shrine of democracy” are pedestrian and cartoon-like, but in some examples the wear and tear exposed by strong magnification show us the four presidents’ faces as ghostly visages or skulls.

Souvenirs (Series 2. Mount Rushmore)
Inkjet prints (variable dimensions, from 18” x 24” to 36” x 48”)
2014–15
SERIES 3. INDUSTRY
This series explores the modernist obsession with industrial progress and fetishization of technology, phenomena still with us today. Themes include the cities of Edmonton (oil refineries), Sudbury (mining slag heap) and Windsor (bridges and shipping), as well as the Manitoba Agricultural Museum (an early tractor).

Souvenirs (Series 3. Industry)
Inkjet prints (variable dimensions, from 18” x 24” to 36” x 48”)
2014–15
© 2014–2017 by Edwin Janzen. All rights reserved.