Clack Clack Empire held an opening for a LOLcat art show featuring the works of Seattle-based Marianne Goldin on Monday.
The clothing and effects store that carries small, rad labels, and doubles as a Gallery, is located in Shanghai Alley just steps away from the gates of Chinatown. Erin M. Edwards, the Boss Lady, owns the store, Vincent Parker curates.
Find out more about Clack Clack Empire, Marianne Goldin, the LOLcat Art Show and more, after the jump.
The original release:
Clack Clack Empire is proud to present CAN’T BELIEVE WE BOTH GOT CATS: LOLcat art show opening
524 Shanghai Alley
Vancouver.
**OPENING Reception on July 21, 7-10pm***
Showing July 21 – August 31, 2008
All ages, free
A show of LOLcat art: drawings in pen and ink on paper, by Marianne Goldin. A departure into a land of concept and pop-art.
ARTIST STATEMENT
- This show is my departure into a land of concept and pop-art. This is a show of LOLcat drawings on paper, rendered in the classical pen and ink tradition.
- My role as an artist is to distill the essence of a feeling or a concept through my chosen medium, for a real or imagined audience (the self is an option).
- The audience is key when thinking about and creating works for public showing. As a “public artist” (one who makes my work available through various media, and one who is active in the public realm), it is my responsibility to consider the zeitgeist when creating works for mass consumption.
- Play is key in art. While I cannot completely validate my amusement with LOLcats through words, I know that it exists, and I know that they bring me joy. Similarly, my “art”– making marks on paper and the gradual progression of these marks to a “finished piece”–cannot be fully explained or accounted for.
- I have a love/hate relationship with jargon. At its best, it can buttress communities of individuals as they attempt to explain and create symbols; at its worst, it can alienate an audience and relegate the subject matter into obscurity. Such are LOLcats, and writing about art.
- LOLcats are an Internet meme, comprised of an image of a cat and crudely (but very idiomatically and stylistically) misspelled block-letter captions surmising the thoughts, internal monologues, and situations ascribed to the cats (the inaugural LOLcat featured a wont fat grey tabby and the words “I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER” emblazoned dead-center.). They deal in an absurdist humor that vacillates between profane/sublime, light-hearted/morose. The patois of LOLspeak is similar to the slang of subcultures.“LOL” is internet-speak for “laugh out loud”. The gestalt of image and text intends a sudden burst of laughter in the midst of the click-clack of a keyboard.LOLcats can take on a meritocratic tone, since not all cats are made equal – an ideal model oozes with pathos and photogeneity. There are even Weberian “ideal types” to be found – styles and families of LOLcat: the terse Zen koan, the Invisible (fill in the blank), and the various motifs of Ceiling Cat. Many instances use cats to allegorize human frustrations with technology.
- The LOLcat phenomenon is a constructed cultural symbol in that it engenders humor and commonality among consumers of digital content. My recent conversation with someone not yet indoctrinated into the LOLcat experience was profoundly changed after the LOLcat concept was introduced and understood by the other person. The LOLcat symbol added a layer of nuance to what was afore-to understood only as my “cat obsession”. It became a kind of secret language – a password and instant clue to my interests and cultural consciousness. In the realm of Internet society, LOLcats act as a proxy for absent physical cues (hairstyle, clothing, accessories, logos, gadgets) to signal attributes of constructed online identities.
- Original Sources: Icanhascheezburger, Wikipedia: “Lolcat”, Wikipedia: “4chan”
Find out more about Clack Clack Empire on their website, HERE or on Facebook, HERE.
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