This raises an interesting question about the ontology of stickers. A sticker is a sticker because of its self-adhesiveness, but here Mrs. Grossman creates a facsimile of the sticker, without its stickiness. What allows it to retain its identity as a sticker when it no longer has this defining quality? Is it simply the use of her sticker designs? The seriality and gridded pattern of the graphic? The presence of the brand name?
I think it is the use of the designs. These are instantly recognizable as Mrs. Grossman's stickers. The shirt reproduces (and in so doing re-produces) the experience of poring over a sticker album, thus making the viewer of the shirt a stand-in for the 1980s sticker collector and the experience of viewing the shirt a replication of the act of collecting. I recommend Hans Belting for further reading.
This raises an interesting question about the ontology of stickers. A sticker is a sticker because of its self-adhesiveness, but here Mrs. Grossman creates a facsimile of the sticker, without its stickiness. What allows it to retain its identity as a sticker when it no longer has this defining quality? Is it simply the use of her sticker designs? The seriality and gridded pattern of the graphic? The presence of the brand name?
ReplyDeleteI think it is the use of the designs. These are instantly recognizable as Mrs. Grossman's stickers. The shirt reproduces (and in so doing re-produces) the experience of poring over a sticker album, thus making the viewer of the shirt a stand-in for the 1980s sticker collector and the experience of viewing the shirt a replication of the act of collecting. I recommend Hans Belting for further reading.
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