Evita Rigert The Palimpsest of Reification Barbara Kruger and Supreme Case Study - Acknowledgements - „All liberation depends on the consciousness of servitude, and the emergence of this consciousness is always hampered by the predominance of needs and satisfactions which, to a great extent, have become the individual’s own.“ Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man (1964) - Contents - Evita Rigert The Palimpsest of Reification Case Study of the everlasting appropriation and re-appropriation of Barbara Kruger and Supreme Sandberg Instituut, Master Design of Experiences, University of the Underground, 2019 Master Thesis Evita, Eva-Maria Rigert Tutor, Prof. Mijke van der Drift CONTENTS 1. Preface ....................................................................................................................................................................... 4 2. A short Biography of Barbara Kruger ....................................................................................................................................................................... 6 2.1 Innovation through Appropriation: The Palimpsest of Barbara Kruger ....................................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Social-political art with philosophical incentives ....................................................................................................................................................................... 10 3. A short biography of James Jebbia ....................................................................................................................................................................... 15 3.1 Commodification of anti-commodity art: The palimpsest of James Jebbias Brand Design Supreme ....................................................................................................................................................................... 16 4. The Commodification of Objects: Karl Marx Theory about ‘Commodity fetishism’ in the Age of Capitalism ....................................................................................................................................................................... 19 5. The time-specific and discourse-specific Environment of Barbara Kruger and James Jebbia: ‘Commodity fetishism’ turns into Societies Pursuit ....................................................................................................................................................................... 23 6.1 Side Case Supreme Bitch: Commodity represents feminism ....................................................................................................................................................................... 37 6.2 Side Case Supreme Barletta: The Pure Commodity ....................................................................................................................................................................... 41 7. The Commodity we Desire ....................................................................................................................................................................... 44 8. Kruger’s art performance at the Performa 17: A philosophical Discussion ....................................................................................................................................................................... 50 3 - Preface- 1. Preface In this case study, I will analyse the exchange between the conceptual artist Barbara Kruger and James Jebbia, the founder of the skater brand Supreme. Over the last 25 years, through the language of art and the communication of branding and marketing, this has established itself as a real discussion. This was based on the fact that Jebbia chose a very similar style to Kruger for the branding of his label Supreme and his products. The interesting thing is that Jebbia appropriated Kruger‘s social- critical anti-commodity art for capitalist purposes. Therefore, this discussion has expanded into a philosophical discourse on the constant commodification and appropriation of capitalism through the production of goods. Although the two main actors have never met in person1, they have a constant dialogue with each other. The case study shows that the discussion between them works through objects with Barbara Kruger communicating through art objects and Jebbia through the objects of his retail collection and the brand Supreme. The object, in the capitalist age, defines itself as a commodity and therefore also through the value of the commodity. This thesis researches the palimpsest of reification2 in the capitalist age in other words the commodification of an object or the “becoming a commodity”, which is based on the time- and discourse-specific context. The term palimpsest3, originally meaning the overwriting of old manuscripts, is used in this thesis to reflect the overwriting of the meaning of objects or things. An object can be overwritten by human emotions and relationships, such as a wedding ring is an overwriting of social values on an object. Or an object can be overwritten by wishes, desires and fears, so that an object not only fulfils a function, but also acquires a psychological importance, such as money. Palimpsest means that the overwritten always remains visible underneath and thus the object, even if it is overwritten with different meaning, always remains the object itself. Such as a sports- 1 as far as accessible to this research 2 Definition Reification from the verb reify | Definition of reify in English by Oxford Dictionaries. (2019). Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/reify [Accessed 10 Apr. 2019]. 3 palimpsest | Definition of palimpsest in English by Oxford Dictionaries. (2019). Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictiona- ries.com/definition/palimpsest [Accessed 10 Apr. 2019]. Origin: Mid 17th century: via Latin from Greek palimpsēstos, from palin ‘again’ + psēstos ‘rubbed smooth’ 4 - Preface- or a family-car always remains a car. Palimpsest also means that the overwritten exists only in the existence of another, the already written one. As we will see in the analysis of the study, the transfer of meaning to objects is based on historical discourse. In order to theoretically understand the connection between the main actors or what meaning an object or a commodity has, it is important to understand the discourse- and time-specific connection. The time-specific context is to be defined on the basis of short biographies and a description of the creation process of the objects; Kruger‘s art and Jebbia‘s label. The theory of the ‘commodity fetishism’ by Karl Marx serves me to discuss the discourse-specific connection and understand the meaning of goods in the context of the main case example. It defines the basis of this thesis and allows to illustrate the psychological and emotional meaning of an object in capitalism in addition to its pure function. Marx describes in theory the contradictory dialectic of goods. By distinguishing the essence and appearance of a product, we can better understand how products are perceived as autonomous entities that can be used for communication, as Kruger and Jebbia do. Resulting from the main case study, two secondary case studies, Supreme Bitch and Supreme Barletta, will also be analysed to supplement the argumentation and describe how „commodity fetishism“ has progressed. The theory in Lauren Berlant‘s book “Cruel Optimism” is used to compare and analyse the meaning of objects in these case studies. It explains the desire of objects and the attachment to objects through the capitalist promises that are attached to them. Kevin Floyd‘s book “Reification of Desire” furthers the research by investigating the reification of social and human relationships that become apparent in the discussion of Kruger and Jebbia by communicating through the power of things and goods. Both theories build on Marx‘s theory of ‘commodity fetishism’ and complement it in the current discourse of the 21st century. 5 - A short Biography of Barbara Kruger - 2. A short Biography of Barbara Kruger Barbara Kruger, born 1945 in New Jersey, studied from 1964 at the University of Syracuse and from 1966 at the Parsons School of Design in New York. In the same year when she had started in Parson, she dropped out of her art education and started working for the Condé Nast publishing house as a picture editor for the magazine Madmoiselle. In only one year she became the head of the picture editing department and also worked as a freelance picture editor. Kruger quickly became an established artist and exhibited at the Whitney Biennale 1973 in New York City. Barbara Kruger, Exhibition Withney Biennial, 1973 Followed by major international exhibitions like the Documenta 7 in Kassel in 19824 and the Venice Biennale in 19825 and 20056. She designed the visual branding of the Performa in 2017 in New York City and was herself part of the exhibition. Kruger currently teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles7. 4 Kruger, B., Deutsche, R., & Goldstein, A. (1999). Thinking of You (1st ed., p. 32). Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Ange- les): The MIT Press & The Museum of Contemporary Art. 5 En.wikipedia.org. (n.d.). Barbara Kruger. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Kruger [Accessed 15 Apr. 2019]. 6 En.wikipedia.org. (n.d.). Barbara Kruger. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Kruger