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Kitsch or Treat: Halloween Traditions
142 Plays3 years ago
Kitsch or Treat! This episode marks the beginning of ARTloween here at APT, starting with defining the complexity of Kitsch and its use durning the spooky season!
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Transcript
Welcome to Halloween Art Pop Talk
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, hello, and welcome to spooky season here at Art Pop Talk. I'm Gianna. And I'm Bianca. It is officially that time. Welcome to a spooktastic month of all things art history and Halloween here on APT.
Are Halloween Traditions Kitsch?
00:00:18
Speaker
We are kicking off the theme today with Kitch.
00:00:23
Speaker
That's right. Today we'll be talking about some origins of Halloween traditions that have led to common kitsch aesthetics for the holiday season.
Weather and Personal Anecdotes
00:00:32
Speaker
All right, all you goblins and ghouls. Are you ready to art pop talk? Hello. Hello. It's Chitty Chitty time. Chitty Chitty time. Happy October. Happy October. How's the weather there?
00:00:52
Speaker
It's good, I guess. That was a weird question. Why is that weird? It's such a nice day here. It's so crisp. I'm really excited about it, but I've been stuck in my apartment working on those damn podcasts. I can't enjoy the crisp weather I get today. I think I'm going to go for a walk later and try to enjoy
Bianca's Work Update and Lady Gaga Appreciation
00:01:15
Speaker
it.
00:01:15
Speaker
The only reason why I know it's nice weather is because I had to go to my property management building because I have this giant hornet's nest that's looming over my balcony. Oh, I see. I didn't think you were going to start off with House of the Weather. It is fine. It is. It's pretty good over here. It's not necessarily like super crisp.
00:01:44
Speaker
outside yet but that's okay. I updated my phone wallpaper to reflect October though with a feature from Miss Gaga of course from her jazz
Moving to Boston: Andrew's New Job
00:01:59
Speaker
concert. I changed my wallpaper to a new picture of my Gaga at the beginning of each month to reflect said month's theme of Gaga.
00:02:13
Speaker
Monster season, pause up. Monster season, let's do it. Did you listen to Love for Sale? Yes, I have. So I had a really big event this week, a fundraiser, an auction at the nonprofit that I work for. And so while I was setting up all the decorations, I was playing Love for Sale. But I was feeling like, I don't know, just with like that in nature, with the nature of this event, and kind of the vibe that I
00:02:42
Speaker
I felt like it had, all throughout the day I was listening to Love for Sale, but then I was listening to Joanne. And I don't know, I just, there was like a lot of old songs, like good classic songs being played and I felt like Joanne just would have been such a good album for this band to play at this philanthropy event and what have you. So anyways, that was my hot take. They did not, but it's okay.
00:03:10
Speaker
I really loved Love for Sale, of course, but I'm thoroughly enjoying my listening experience. No complaints. And you got to listen to that album quite a bit on your little adventure this weekend. You want to talk about it? I did. I would love to talk about it. Well, I was listening to the album on my drive up to Boston and some news that
00:03:38
Speaker
Gianna and I teased last week that I can finally talk about, is that I will be moving up to Boston at the beginning of November. Boy of APT, Andrew James, Marvel expert, has started his job
Jens Honning's 'Take the Money and Run' Prank
00:03:54
Speaker
today. His first day was today, so happy first day, Andrew.
00:03:57
Speaker
but he got a job up in Boston and this past weekend we were moving him up to our apartment and then I'm gonna finish some things up with work down here in PA and then I'm gonna be moving up there to join him next month. So I am very excited and this is a plug for all the art pop tarts in Boston. If we have any listeners up there I would love to connect with some artsy
00:04:27
Speaker
pop culture people up there and I'd love to hang out or if anyone knows of anything that I should be checking out in Boston, please, please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it. OMG, Boston APT made up. Very cute. Cute. Alrighty, well, are we ready to get into some art news?
00:04:55
Speaker
All right, today's art news is wildly fascinating. Oh my gosh, this was a lot of people are sending this story to us last week, which is very cool. And
00:05:08
Speaker
very exciting. So, the Kunstern Museum of Modern Art in Alborg, Denmark received a trick instead of a treat when artist Jens Honning turned in two blank canvases in exchange for what would be basically $84,000.
Museum Reactions and Artist Commentary
00:05:29
Speaker
According to a written agreement between the museum and the artist, Honning was expected to utilize banknotes from the payment
00:05:38
Speaker
to recreate two pieces of art that he's previously made. An average Danish annual income and an average Austrian annual income. And these works were from like 2007 and 2010, I think around that time. The original artworks represented the respective average of annual incomes of Austrians and Danes using cash bills.
00:06:03
Speaker
Their contract even stated that the museum would give Honning an additional 6,000 euros to update the work if needed. At the time the works were initially exhibited, the Danish piece highlighted the average income of 328,000 kroner, which is basically about 37,800 US dollars. While the average Austrian salary illustrated about 25,000 euros or $29,000.
00:06:33
Speaker
But for this latest rendition of the pieces, Honning delivered two completely empty frames with no banknotes to be seen. The piece is called Take the Money and Run. Honning explained in an interview with a Danish radio program that, quote, the work is that I have taken their money. It's not theft.
00:06:56
Speaker
It's a breach of contract and breach of contract is part of the work. The director of the museum said, quote, the curator received an email in which Jens Honning wrote that he had made a new piece of artwork and changed the work title into take the money and run.
00:07:15
Speaker
Subsequently, quote, we could ascertain that the money had not been put into the work. And then, in fact, when they showed up, the frames that were meant to be filled with cash were actually empty. When he finally saw take the money and run, the director said that he laughed, quote,
00:07:35
Speaker
Jens is known for his conceptual and artistic art with humoristic touches. He gave us that, but also a bit of a wake-up call as everyone now wonders, where did the money go? According to Honning's press release, quote, the idea behind it was to show how salaries can be used to measure the value of work and to show national differences within the European Union. But by changing the title of the work to take the money and run,
00:08:03
Speaker
Honning questions artists' rights and their working conditions in order to establish more equitable norms within the art industry. Honning said, quote, everyone would like to have more money and in our society, work industries are valued differently.
00:08:19
Speaker
The artwork is essentially about the working conditions of artists. He also says that we have a responsibility of questioning the structures of what we are a part of. And if these structures are completely unreasonable, we must break with them. It can be your marriage, your work, it can be any type of societal structure.
00:08:40
Speaker
The artist claimed that the stunt was in reaction to the low fees offered to him by the museum, and completing the works would have required him to pay an extra 25,000 kronor, which is about $4,000 out of pocket.
00:08:56
Speaker
He didn't show any remorse. He said that he has no intention to return the
Publicity and Future of Honning's Pieces
00:09:00
Speaker
money. Quote, I encourage other people who have just as miserable working conditions as me to do the same. If they are sitting on some shit job and not getting money and are actually being asked to give money to go into work, then take the box and run off. The museum, however, is enjoying quite a bit of publicity for the time being, at least.
00:09:25
Speaker
these empty frames were actually included in the exhibition, Work It Out. And this exhibition examines the labor market and working conditions of artists. This is like, oh my god, so freaking ironic. However, the museum is planning to claim the loan back whenever the exhibition ends in January. Quote, it wasn't what we had agreed on in the contract, but we got new and interesting art, said the director again.
00:09:53
Speaker
When asked if the museum would consider taking legal action against the artist, the director replied, quote, right now we will wait and see if the money is not returned on January 16th. As we agreed, we will of course take the necessary steps to ensure that Jen's honing complies with his contract. Holy.
00:10:12
Speaker
Shit, Gianna, I have so many thoughts. Fuck this museum. They're hanging it on the walls right now. They're getting so much publicity. It is like a fucking Banksy type scenario. Like Jen's haunting is just shredding an artwork and it's becoming more valuable. These blank canvases are becoming so fucking valuable and this museum wants its money back. Okay, I'm just saying that the art pop tarts in Paris came through with some pictures of the arc. Like I'm in a need.
00:10:41
Speaker
In our part, our Danish art part, our Danish. I love a good Danish. I love a good Danish. This is your time. This is your time. Danish's rise. Send me a picture of that label. I don't, obviously, send me a pic of the artwork if you're already there, but I need to read this label. I'm very fascinated. Language of this is everything. I want to read the label. I just...
00:11:08
Speaker
What? You hung it on the fucking walls and you're asking for your money back? It would be one thing if they didn't hang it up. You know what I mean? It would be one thing if they completely rejected it and they wanted their money back. They didn't exhibit it. You know what I mean? But they are profiting up all this press. Do you know how many ticket sales? I guess I don't know the structure of the museum, but I'm assuming that a special exhibition like that costs money. Do you know how much it costs to get into the exhibition? It doesn't even matter because
00:11:38
Speaker
Even if the museum, even if it doesn't charge money or even if the exhibition doesn't charge money, that doesn't matter. It's about bringing that tourism and those bodies into the space because whatever funding they ask for in the future will be part of that. And that's how they'll get money. That's the structure. Art museums, cultural destinations raise tourism in the area. It's all part of it. So it doesn't even matter if they're not even directly charging for it.
00:12:08
Speaker
Yeah, that's a really good point. There are like other powers that be that affect that. Are they going to return the works? What I wonder what the loan agreement is like because they came to him asking to make these
00:12:21
Speaker
pieces for the show. And I wonder if they would be part of their permanent collection. You know, like I wonder if these works were going to go in their collection or if they were supposed to go back to the artist.
Legal Speculations on Blank Canvases
00:12:32
Speaker
I'm also I'm curious because the artist said that he would have he would have had to put about 3900 of his own money into this artwork to get it completed. But
00:12:47
Speaker
I'm curious if there was a stipend involved to give him that was outside of that lump sum of money that was just supposed to go towards the artwork. What's that situation? Right.
00:12:59
Speaker
What is his actual pay? What is his actual profit from it? Not just the money that was supposed to make up the artwork in itself. Right, because we got the quote and we're getting a little taste of, you know, I encourage other people who have just as miserable working conditions as me to do the same. So was this a shitty deal to begin with? And he just
Origins of Halloween Traditions
00:13:22
Speaker
saw the opportunity from the get-go.
00:13:25
Speaker
Yeah but also what is also wild to me is like if I am understanding this correctly like they would have been filled with actual cash and so it's wild that a museum in the first place wouldn't pay an artist but they would just like fork out
00:13:45
Speaker
basically $84,000 to be put literally on the walls again. You know what I mean? But they're like, all the money in the museum, the value's already in all the other stuff on the wall. And now this blank...
00:14:05
Speaker
Now this blank canvas is still worth $84,000 because of like the prestige. I just feel like this is one for the history books. I don't know. Gardener's History of Art. Look out. Look out. Bianca, you and I need to put January 16th right in the calendar. Oh, for sure. Oh my gosh. I don't think I'm going to be able to process anything till January 16th. So let's
00:14:32
Speaker
feel as though maybe I'm going to put a pin in it. Oh my gosh. Oh, I cannot wait to see what happens. That is what like, are they going to give them back to him? I just don't know. And then even so I wonder I feel like he could just sell the canvases to somewhere better. No, which made me even that fucking museum back and still break even know right because either way, like, even in the end, okay, if it's a breach of contract, so he has to give his money back over.
00:15:02
Speaker
to this place. Okay, that's fine. Since he didn't complete the artwork, they should in turn give him back his artwork that he's in the right to, but he could just go sell that for the same exact amount of money and keep it all for himself because he wouldn't have to put the money in the piece because that's not part of it now. This is fucking genius.
00:15:26
Speaker
I fucking stan a pissed off artist just not taking any shit from a museum. This is level of Banksy pressing a button and shredding his own artwork in the auction house type moment. Exactly. This is like a baller move.
00:15:47
Speaker
it is it's so fucking cool i just like i cannot go over this story okay danishes we have put you in the oven you are rising you are hot let's go danishes i could go for danish right now num num um um well should we get into today's art pop talk
00:16:11
Speaker
Absolutely for today's Art Pop Talk we
Samhain's Influence on Halloween
00:16:15
Speaker
are talking about the origins of Halloween traditions and how they have led to common kitsch aesthetics for the holiday seasons. We are going to be thinking about and analyzing all the things that we kind of take for granted and normally do and see this time of year.
00:16:33
Speaker
whether as kids or adults, things like bobbing for apples, avoiding black cats, giving candy out to strangers, which is usually a very unacceptable thing, and wearing masks. So Gianna, will you walk us through the origins of it all?
00:16:50
Speaker
Yes, it would be my pleasure. So why do we do all of these things? Most of it all is wrapped up in superstition, both old and new. And not shockingly, these catch actions are derived from either respecting the dead, honoring past loved ones, or fearing spirits that might enter our homes. How can we give the spirits goods, food or treats? But also how do we trick them
00:17:17
Speaker
into thinking we're also a fellow ghosty so they don't possess us. But what is the scariest thing of all about spooky season you might ask that we as a society cannot even comprehend that is so frightening and we become so worrisome that it may happen to be an unmarried woman.
00:17:44
Speaker
So the fear of not marrying and doing rituals to determine your future marital status is one of the most fascinating traditions that isn't a mainstream part of Halloween at all.
00:17:56
Speaker
you could even say, including our next topic will be that involvement of Kitch. But later, if we do have time, I do want to talk about how fascinating these odd rituals are and how I think it's also a little bit of a huge missed opportunity for conceptual and commentative horror. We do have like bridal horror and like, you know, female kind of monstrous. Yeah, a little bit of that. But it's interesting to me that the fear of not marrying
00:18:25
Speaker
isn't used more because of this history even though it's not mainstream like how has a poor person not like just done a basic google search because this came up for me like basic halloween google search you know
00:18:39
Speaker
So let's start from the beginning.
Roman and Christian Contributions to Halloween
00:18:42
Speaker
Most of the history that has affected American Halloween culture and our consumer world comes from Celtic traditions and the festival called Samhain on October 31, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to Earth on the night before the new year.
00:18:58
Speaker
which was November 1, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. The new year celebrated on November 1 marked the end of the summer the end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark cold winter a time of year that was often associated with human death. So due to the transition in the season this time of year this holiday became very superstitious and a scary holiday
00:19:23
Speaker
because you know when 2,000 years ago you're so dependent on the natural world for survival, that's like super real. So cold weather is not fun. So the relationship between religious figures and the natural world and the spirit world became important as the Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids or Celtic priests to make predictions about the future. To commemorate the day and help protect them from the winter, the Druids built huge sacred bonfires
00:19:52
Speaker
the people gathered to burn crops and animals and sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration the Celts wore costumes typically consisting of animal heads and skins and attempting to tell each other's fortunes.
00:20:08
Speaker
Now moving a little bit forward, by 43 CE the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of 400 years that they ruled the Celts' land, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Sowin. The first was Fairlia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead.
00:20:34
Speaker
The second day was to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which was also the fruit that the Romans brought with them through all these territories that they conquered. And then corporation of the celebration into so and probably helps explain the tradition of bobbing for apples.
00:20:54
Speaker
that is practiced today on Halloween, which used to be the superstitious prediction test of which young women would be married off first, essentially, and I'll get into that a little bit. Next is where we get a new development of the haunted season, All Saints Day in Hall Hallows Eve, with the influence of Protestant religion. On May 13th, 609 CE, the Catholic Feasts of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western Church.
00:21:23
Speaker
Pope Gregory III later explained the festival to include all saints, as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13th to November 1st. By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic land, where it gradually blended and replaced other Celtic traditions. In 1000 CE, the church made November 2nd, All Souls Day, a day to honor the dead.
00:21:48
Speaker
And it is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related church sanctioned holiday. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to so in with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils.
Halloween in America: An Evolution
00:22:10
Speaker
All Saints Day celebration was also called All Hallows or All Hallowsmas. The night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion and began to be called All Hallows Eve and then eventually Halloween. So there's like a lot of like, it's this, it's this, now it's this type situation. When does Halloween come to America?
00:22:34
Speaker
So the celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief system there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and other southern colonies. So as the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and first peoples
00:22:53
Speaker
meshed, this kind of developed a more distinctly American version of Halloween that we see to emerge. The first celebration included something that was referred to as play parties, which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. And then we get neighborhoods that would start to share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, they would dance and sing, ghost stories, all that jazz.
00:23:16
Speaker
Colonial Halloween festivals also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief making of all kind. By the middle of the 19th century annual autumn festivals did also become common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
00:23:33
Speaker
And the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants, also including Irish peoples fleeing the Irish potato famine, which also helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween more nationally. I did want to get into the kitsch of it all here as well. And I think that we should start off with the most kitsch activity of them all.
00:24:00
Speaker
which is trick or treating. So borrowing from the Celtic history of costuming, our Roman celebratory history and throw in that newer European tradition as well with All Souls Day, we get trick or treating.
00:24:16
Speaker
During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called soul cakes. In return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives, the distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine
00:24:35
Speaker
for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as, quote, going a-souling, was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses of their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter, you know, ghosty friends.
00:24:59
Speaker
if they left their homes.
Predicting Marital Futures: Halloween Rituals
00:25:00
Speaker
So to avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks and participate in that costuming when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would also place bowls of food outside of their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.
00:25:22
Speaker
kind of same vibe you know when like a house just has like a bowl of candy on their porch like leave me alone just take the candy and run kind of vibe same thing I think I do want to talk about how
00:25:36
Speaker
scary and important Halloween was for unmarried young women and how there are these traditions in relation to finding a husband that we don't hear about as much or even really practice today. So bobbing for apples is the closest thing that we do but at least in my experience is in no way
00:25:59
Speaker
related to or has these director associations to these like unmarried women competing for who will be first down the aisle and it's such a weird random thing like I was trying to remember if I had actually ever bobbed for apples before and I can only think of like elementary school Halloween parties perhaps or like autumn festivals shit like that where I feel as though I had probably done it but
00:26:25
Speaker
Does anyone question? This is super odd activity to do. Anyways, what are you gonna do? So one of the reasons why I feel as though and what I was reading is that we don't really talk about this aspect or this tradition of Halloween as much and it's mostly because it's so much linked to like looking to the future than it is celebrating or latching on to the dead or the
00:26:55
Speaker
deceased. However, regardless, the constant is that we are still needing the help or feeling the presence of the spirits, whether that's to celebrate them or for them to like help guide and test our future. In 18th century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it.
Marriage Superstitions and Rituals
00:27:20
Speaker
In Scotland, fortune tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nut into a fireplace. The nut that burned two ashes rather than popping or exploding as the story went represented the girl's future husband. And then in some versions of this legend, the opposite was true. So the nut that burned away civilized a love that would not last. Another tale
00:27:50
Speaker
had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts, and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night, she would dream about her future husband.
00:28:01
Speaker
one of the last couple is that a young woman tossed apple peels over her shoulder hoping that the peel would fall on the floor in the shape of her future husband's initials that one's a little specific and so then i guess like your last desperate you know attempt if all these other options didn't work into seeing your future you would take an egg yolk
00:28:23
Speaker
and you would put it in a bowl of standing water and then you would stand in front of a mirror in a dark room and then you'd be holding a candle and you would try to see your future husband's face in the mirror over your shoulder. So I just thought, as we like to say, that that was wildly fascinating. And I don't know, I just feel like perhaps there's a missed opportunity here
00:28:52
Speaker
I for the past maybe like four years I've started to get more into spooky season and be more aware of like horror film history as I become more interested in it. The reason why I kind of never dappled in it is really just because I'm a true scaredy cat and I just genuinely can't handle it. But there's so much about like artistic and like meaningful horror that I
00:29:21
Speaker
am now so interested in and participate in. So this is maybe just also my ignorance, but I'm not aware of in particular any horror movies that like feature this kind of storytelling in it or or use any of these old kind of rituals that we don't talk about. I feel as though that could be super fascinating. But the closest thing I feel like we get is is kind of bridal horror.
00:29:51
Speaker
And the closest thing that I could think about was Tim Burton's A Corpse Bride and how she is dead, but she still is hoping to become married, even in the afterlife.
Origins of Halloween Symbols
00:30:06
Speaker
Jenna, I feel as though we should hold off on this and actually save these questions for our special horror film expert who will be joining us later on in the month on the podcast, because I feel like
00:30:20
Speaker
She'll have a lot of really great responses and be able to guide us through some of those themes or maybe point out something that we're missing, but I agree. Again, I as well am truly the biggest scaredy cat of all time, but I have recently discovered that deep interest and appreciation for horror
00:30:44
Speaker
And I think this would be a really cool concept to think about. Yeah, yeah, I agree. So diving into more traditions that I feel as though have kitsch energy. Bianca, I thought it would be fun to play just a little guessing game where you think these Halloween traditions, origin stories, what have you come from. Oh, okay, I don't know any.
00:31:15
Speaker
Okay. So black cats, like what's the deal with black cats? Well, um, I believe that cats are guardians of the underworld. And so I don't know where black cats come in specifically, but I, I feel as though cats in general, like are guardians of like spirits.
00:31:37
Speaker
going back to like Egyptian mythology and religion. Yeah, I definitely do not think that you're wrong there. I think that there's probably a lot that is tied up there. However, based off kind of the knowledge that I have going into this, the association of black cats and spookiness actually dates all the way back to the medieval ages, where these dark kittens were considered a symbol of the devil.
00:32:03
Speaker
Oh, that's cute. There's also an association with black cats and how those are how witches guise themselves and why you can never see a witch is because it's really a black cat. I like that. Or as they call it, like the familiar, like a black cat is a witch is familiar.
00:32:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So we talked about bobbing for apples. Although I couldn't not share that info ahead of time. But that would have been a wild one. What about bats other than how they're like, batty? Okay, I feel like bats are interesting because of their teeth. I'm thinking like,
00:32:47
Speaker
vampire associations and like preying on feminine thinking about like the bridal aspect like preying on like virgin women and bats eat fruit and fruit has an association with women and fertility as we've talked about in our watermelon episode. Yeah. So it's likely that bats were present at the early celebration of the kind of proto Halloween time.
00:33:18
Speaker
not just symbolically, but like literally. So as part of Sew In, the Celts lit large bonfires, as we talked about, which attracted like a bunch of bugs essentially, and like the insects in turn would attract bats, which soon became associated with that festival. And so medieval folklore explained upon the spooky connection of the bat with a number of superstitions like built around that idea and how there are also these
00:33:47
Speaker
harbors of death as well. Interesting. I mean, what about jack-o'-lanterns? How do we feel about jack-o'-lanterns? I feel like I should know this. I did not know. I don't question any of these things and that's my job. Man, I feel like I did know this at one point and I forgot. What's that thing with the pumpkin head, that guy, jack-o'-lantern?
00:34:17
Speaker
What is that story? Oh, isn't there like a head? Are you talking about like the, oh no, I know what you're talking about. I'm getting like this mixed up with like the headless.
00:34:29
Speaker
Horse Rider, dude. Oh, that's who I'm thinking of. Is that the same thing? I'm thinking of, like, you know that episode of Wishbone? Do you remember Wishbone? Yes. And it was like that, there was like a Halloween episode about this. And I feel like that's where my associations with Jack O'Lanterns are going, is to Wishbone. The only memory I have of Wishbone, which I think they're bringing back, by the way, is like Oliver Twist's story.
00:34:58
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. So like, but like, what is the purpose of like a jack-o'-laner as it functions? Well, you put a candle in it. So like lighting a candle for your lost spirits. Okay. Yeah. So they can find their way to your home to, you know, be ghosty pals. But we were trying to avoid that earlier.
00:35:25
Speaker
uh maybe to like disguise instead of a mask it's like you know how you carve a face on a pumpkin is it to like... is it to like trick the ghosts? i got you
00:35:41
Speaker
The young guy, I know that you don't really watch The Office, but there's an episode, there's a Halloween episode that's really good and Dwight carves the pumpkin and he wears it on his head and he can't get it off and I have seen like the moon of it all. I wish I never carved out that damn pumpkin.
00:35:59
Speaker
So the Jack-o'-lanterns originated in Ireland using turnips instead of pumpkins originally and supposedly were based on a legend about a man named Stingy Jack who repeatedly trapped the devil and only let him go on the condition that Jack would never go to hell. When he died, however, Jack learned that heaven didn't really want his soul either. So he was condemned to wander the earth as a ghost for all eternity.
What is Kitsch in Art?
00:36:28
Speaker
The devil gave Jack a lump of burning coal and a carved-out turnip to light his way. Eventually, locals began carving frightening faces into their own gourds to scare off evil spirits. Oh, interesting. I feel like I didn't know that. I feel like there's some other story that I'm thinking of with Jack O'Lantern. I feel like pop culture has turned.
00:36:54
Speaker
Jack O'Lantern, perhaps into like a different kind of character. I feel like we're getting that confused with like the headless horseman dude. I feel as though those are different things, but maybe doing a great job. And so I thought this would be a good question to end on as we get into kitsch, but the black and orange color scheme of it all. I would guess like the
00:37:21
Speaker
the changing colors of the season. Like I just feel like orange is an association with nature. Like, you know, the colors change around this time to a very orangey aesthetic. So that's what I would think. But yeah, you're you're you're basically right on the money. So the classic Halloween colors can can be traced back to that Celtic festival. So when if we want, but black, you know, represented the death of
00:37:51
Speaker
um summer while orange is this um like you said this transition into autumn and representing the autumn harvest season that we have but then i feel like as we move forward in a more modern context the other two colors are green and purple so i feel like it's black orange green and purple that will kind of help us
00:38:16
Speaker
I don't know, I think a good color scheme is a good visual for our next conversation. Totally. Yeah, but process those colors in your head, let that, you know, mold and kind of mesh together while we take a little break. And when we come back, we are talking about all things Halloween.
00:39:06
Speaker
Welcome back everybody. So now we are going to look a little bit at Halloween kitsch. And you know, when Gianna and I were kind of laying out our episodes for the month of October, we kind of naturally gravitated towards, you know, that very horror gendered aesthetic that I think we have
00:39:30
Speaker
like we were saying earlier, become very interested in in the past few years. And we were also thinking about campiness, which we're going to which will be our topic next week as well. But as we started thinking about, you know, some some aspects that were missing, we decided to think about kind of like that cutesy, kitsch aesthetic that is popping up everywhere, not just with fall, I think, you know, we've been talking about Ray Dunn, we were talking about different kind of like,
00:40:00
Speaker
TJ Maxx suburban aesthetics, you know of like the fall season in our past few episodes and I think that that kind of like meshes really well with this idea of like holiday kitsch not just not just fall in particular not just like the fall y'all signs that you you know see at Hobby Lobby or whatever I'm talking about like
00:40:22
Speaker
halloween in particular kitsch that you start finding everywhere and it's kind of these like very cute and very like happy and it's more on the like spooky side than the scary side of halloween i would say and like you might think that this is
00:40:44
Speaker
This is geared towards younger audiences, but I think actually like a more mature crowd is also really interested in that idea of Halloween and holiday kitsch. So Gianna, what do you think of when you think of
00:40:58
Speaker
kitsch in the context of this holiday. Yeah, so as we were just talking about, I do think I see a particular color scheme in my head. But that also happens to embody the spirit of the Jenner sisters as of 2019.
00:41:15
Speaker
in their costuming gowns. But how I would define it, perhaps my own terms, is revived nostalgia almost. Something old, maybe that was not thought of as particularly cute at the time, revived and consumed to be cute. This is how I feel about maximalistic energy decor. I think that's definitely
00:41:42
Speaker
reviving aesthetics that were seen as like not very cute or kind of looked down on but now are being revitalized into something that is like high decor.
00:41:56
Speaker
Right, right. So I want to talk about the concept of kitsch. Like it is something that is really difficult to define and study. A Guardian article reads that quote, to try to define kitsch is to enter a hall of mirrors that reflects your own prejudice. The word is German and has been used since the 20s.
00:42:20
Speaker
but one person's kitsch is another's lovely table lamp. So how can we talk about it without revealing these layers of snobbery? Kitsch is defined as quote, art objects or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality.
00:42:42
Speaker
but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way. Kitch was first used in the 19th century to refer to inexpensive pictures sold as souvenirs to tourists. One frequently suggested etymological origin, again, is German from the German verb verkitchen, meaning to make cheaply.
00:43:07
Speaker
Thus, from its earliest usage, kitsch was linked to a type of cheapened form of art, something that is either mass-produced or produced very quickly, without much quote, aesthetic merit or taste.
Kitsch to High Art: Examples and Aesthetics
00:43:23
Speaker
In the book Kitsch, History, Theory, Practice, art historian Monica Kelman Chappen writes, quote, kitsch, the mere word evokes mental images of cutesy collectibles
00:43:36
Speaker
trickly trinkets, sweetly sentimental scenes, thematically trite tabletop tchotchkes, or perhaps anemic appropriations of canonical works of art, whether in frameable production form or as a garden folly available for sale in a variety of sizes. Although frequently dismissed as facile, lowbrow, or one-off, throwaway aesthetics,
00:44:05
Speaker
Kitch is surprisingly mobile and complex. It can constitute all manner of mass-produced trifles as well as the quote fine art essays. Then we have a very famous essay from art critic Clement Greenberg from 1939. He wrote Avant Garde and Kitch quote
00:44:30
Speaker
One in the same civilization produces simultaneously two different things, such as a poem by T.S. Eliot and a Tin Pan Alley song, or a painting by Brock in a Saturday evening post cover. For Greenberg, there are two very stark polarities of culture happening, this kind of very serious high modernist art such as
00:44:55
Speaker
poetry or cubist painting versus this like lowbrow preferred art for the majority which includes pot music and you know paintings by Norman Rockwell is what he uses as those examples. Again from the art historian Kalman Chapin they rate quote
00:45:15
Speaker
Kitch is almost universally recognized as a denigration, as a category of objects, as a set of responses, but simultaneously widely elastic in its parameters and has generated quite a bit of theorizing about what Kitch is and might be. What it suggests about class and taste and how it functions as reflective, proscriptive, and constructive devices within culture.
00:45:45
Speaker
Many early discussions of kitsch centered on its assumed parasitic relationship to the potential of very high art. And much of the writing that we have about kitsch is very much centered on the visual arts, but it's also a concept that has been applied to other forms of art, including music, literature, theater. And then increasingly this concept of kitsch has been applied to other fields as well. So not just the art world, but
00:46:15
Speaker
It's debated in architecture, business studies, economics, critical management. She cites organization theory, design, urban planning, media studies, political science, religious studies, queer theory. So again, like kitsch is this weird word that takes place in like very diverse
00:46:35
Speaker
facets of our life. And the things that Greenberg viewed in like this very derogatory light of kitsch are now becoming very
Consumer Culture and Kitsch in Halloween
00:46:44
Speaker
trendy. So where does this leave kitsch as it relates to kind of Halloween, what we're seeing right now. So I want to think about like, what are some kitschy things that are actually viewed as high art? And I think like a classic example is like the balloon dog. So it's interesting that kitsch can also take this
00:47:05
Speaker
form of like I don't know self-reflection where I feel like someone you know I'm just gonna I'm just gonna use this example because it's easy someone like like Jeff Koons is playing on the idea of kitsch to elevate his art to a high art standard and that's I don't know that seems like kind of this like reversal that we were also talking about with art news today like something that was like
00:47:30
Speaker
intended to be very high art is like very low brow or that flip flop, like something that's low brow is now something that's revered on a museum walls in an exhibition. Also, I wanted to note that the art history babes have a great episode on holiday kitsch. Specifically, they kind of release this episode more about, you know, around the winter holiday season, with a lot of kind of like Christmas holiday kitsch of the winter time.
00:47:57
Speaker
But I think that that's a great episode to think about things also in terms of Halloween as well. So Gianna, what items come to mind when you think about Halloween kitsch in particular and like what makes it like
00:48:12
Speaker
so cutesy and so trendy, even though it's like a weird thing of like, stuff, you know, it's just kind of stuff. Yeah, because even with the things that are actually meant to be more scary, especially when you see it in a storefront, like a Freddy Krueger Halloween, yes, spirit Halloween, like you see that big orange sign and your local JC Penney is that closed down. And like you have a
00:48:38
Speaker
expectation of what it's going to look like in there. It's going to be temporary like wire walls with a bunch of temporary merchandise in it. And I feel as though maybe also that space is part of the kitsch factor because things aren't as scary when they're not in use. So even when I see that like Fred and Kruger mask or the hockey mask, whoever that guy is, I don't fucking know. Jason.
00:49:07
Speaker
Jason! Jason, come on, come on. Watch Galaxy Quest. That's a good, maybe Halloween movie. Yeah, kind of. It's not, it's just a plastic mask. It's not being in use. It's a thing that I know exists for this type of season. I feel like that maybe attributes to what I'm feeling. Aside from
00:49:34
Speaker
the consumer world, well, this also deals with the consumer world, but kind of going back to maybe an artist that I think uses
00:49:41
Speaker
kitsch and also ties into like monster theory, which you can always refer back to our monster theory episode, but ties very well with these new Halloween concepts is there's an artist Francis Goodman, who I am literally obsessed with. Love this person very much. She makes a lot of forms out of acrylic fingernails, like fake acrylic fingernails.
00:50:07
Speaker
And that's her main source of medium is this found commercial object that she recycles. And she makes this tentacle-like form that looks very animalistic, looks very monstrous, very snake-like. And the colors that are brought out in that, I feel like, are very kitsch and then tied with the monster theory of it all. Those images are what's circulating in my head a little bit, like your Jeff Koons.
00:50:36
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So it was just, I was trying to find more, I guess, theory behind Halloween, kitsch in particular, but whenever I'm like trying to do research, everything that just came up was like, shop, shop holiday kitsch, like shop this, shop that, like here's my Pinterest board for a holiday kitsch, but that in itself was just so interesting.
00:51:04
Speaker
just to see the visuals of what comes up and I was looking at like people's different Pinterest boards about like specifically these Pinterest boards are called like Halloween kitsch decor about how to decorate your space in a kitschy Halloween way but then in the opposite direction of that I also was reading these like blog posts what from seemed like very like rich people who have big
00:51:31
Speaker
houses and big Halloween parties and like they have the whole to do for the holiday season. And there were a few blog posts that were about decorating your home to avoid holiday kitsch. And that was super interesting in terms of like that idea of accessibility.
00:51:47
Speaker
what is cheap and what is kind of like for the populace rather than what is for these people who are like it was like how to decorate your home for your dinner party and like how like but how to avoid kitsch at your Halloween party and it's like that the images that they were using were like very I would say like very high-end kind of event set up like I don't know if I've talked about this a lot but I work as an event planner I have like a certification for it and so I
00:52:17
Speaker
just like the the images are really very specific to like an extremely high-end type of gathering and that's just another like really interesting concept between like these blogs that people are putting out versus like these kind of like I don't want to say average but accessible, trendy,
00:52:38
Speaker
kitsch items that people like, that people like want to decorate their homes. It was just so, I don't know, there was like a very weird contrast between those two. Yeah, you know, it's it's funny that you mentioned like the party planning of it all because one of the last parties that I like through or one of the events that I last threw as an employee was in the Memory Care Center that I was working for and Halloween was I had to like
00:53:07
Speaker
tread very lightly because nothing can be scary. Nothing can be triggering. So all the things that we had were very family-friendly decor, but they were those cheaply made also decor items. So that definitely set a tone. But I even think what is interesting about that is any event or any activity that you're doing with people who have different forms of dementia is that
00:53:34
Speaker
It really helps when things have these familiarity to it, this nostalgia to it so you can have like a talking point with them. So that was also a thing that we had to be aware of. And I think Kitch was definitely a part of that. But when it also comes to like the food artistry of it all, like if you go to your Pinterest and you get those like fun, different like Halloween desserts that you can make, even that has a similar energy to these types of other goods.
00:54:03
Speaker
Totally totally I think there's also something you said for Like catering an event like that and like something that is like very high-end But then something yeah like food kitsch would be up like I'm trying to like an elevated Halloween brownie, but like all I can think of are like my mommy's in a blanket and
00:54:26
Speaker
Right. But those are so cute. I'm thinking of like the witch's fingers, you know? The witch's fingers. Yeah. Or like a good, like a cute sugar cookie. Sugar cookie. You know, that you see in like Walmart this time around. It's going to be orange, purple, green, 4th of July. Oh, I love those things. It's going to be blue, white, and red, like. Love those cookies. Like I can't, I'm having a hard time imagining something like that.
00:54:51
Speaker
like a food a consumer food for the season season that's not kitsch right yeah and even what you said going back to um thinking about those ties to nostalgia the kitsch items that are we're kind of like flooding my feeds are do have that like a very nostalgic quality to them i don't know if there's like another
00:55:17
Speaker
word to describe it other than like it looks old like all of these items that were like pegged or pinned as being kitschy look like they're from the 50s like there is this freaking cute little jack-o'-lantern with a little black cap but it they look so happy and like they look so cute and then I am obsessed with this
00:55:40
Speaker
It's like a postcard. I think it's like a Happy Halloween postcard. I don't I don't know how to describe like the feeling of this postcard other than it just it looks old like it completely looks like it's from another era. I'm obsessed with it. It's like two
00:55:57
Speaker
like pumpkin people and there's like a pumpkin wearing a top hat and a little like old suit and then there's a like what i would presume to be like a lady pumpkin who has like a big feather hat and like a orange dress and these like jackal they have like jack-o'-lantern heads and they're like embracing each other and smiling at each other and these like
00:56:19
Speaker
Jackalandons looks so cute. They look like they're like so in love and celebrating Halloween. It's like what we talked about with our drag episode. How do you know it's a girl frog? How do you know it's a girl pumpkin? Exactly. It's like
00:56:32
Speaker
It's like, well, the lady pumpkin has a feather on and the trash. It's really interesting. I don't know how to describe this feeling of kitsch. You know what I mean? Other than it harkens back to something that maybe I haven't necessarily experienced, but in our perceived notions of that time appears
00:56:59
Speaker
old or from another era.
Kitsch in Christmas vs. Halloween
00:57:01
Speaker
You know what's so interesting, the more we talk about this in relation to other seasons, is I can imagine what a elevated, classy, sophisticated Christmas party looks like. I can also imagine what a different kind of Christmas party looks like, one that maybe is more wholesome, where you have big colored light bulbs. Ugly sweater party. Ugly sweater party, big colored lights on your tree and on your house, instead of having, that's a good story, Granite.
00:57:31
Speaker
I was thinking of friends or Chandler's like, yes, what happened to the big lights? That's a good story grandpa. I'm tired of this grandpa. But you can see those differences in your head and I know that you can all do that. You can picture like a white clean and like a blue Christmas versus like a
00:57:52
Speaker
The big bold colored Christmas even when I think about like like when I was a kid I used to go trick-or-treating and like a rich neighborhood like with my middle schooler friends and you could go into like the cool houses that have the maze and like even then they were taken to like a full like aesthetic where there was like lights and like black lights and cobwebs right there's still a vibe there and
00:58:15
Speaker
that obviously there's just like a lot more going on here, but it doesn't deter from the feeling of this cute little postcard that you just showed me. Even when I go into a haunted house at a haunted house festival or whatever you go into a theme park.
00:58:32
Speaker
It still has that feeling. I can still be scared of it, but then when I take a step back and I digest it, I don't know how to explain it. I'm like, is the nostalgia just now so mainstream in this holiday that we can't get away from it?
00:58:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's something that's really interesting about about Halloween. It's like, it's trendy. I think that Halloween kitsch is very, very trendy. And there's something about, I don't know, there's something about like, maybe it's maybe it's the association with fall. Like we've been talking about like that, like suburban fandom about this season in particular that is I think is kind of like infiltrated like, I don't know, like,
00:59:19
Speaker
one of those subcultures that we've been referencing or like a very like Halloween horror focused culture, like subculture, I don't know. There seems to be like a very interesting merging of those two that's happening where it's like elevated kitsch or it's like acceptable kitsch or something like that within the holiday, within the Halloween season. Right, exactly. It's like even if it's elevated, it's still not deterring away from
00:59:46
Speaker
What is kitsch? It's like not a separate thing. Like how I feel like I can divide Christmas into kind of two different aesthetics. I'm having a hard time with this, which is really fascinating. I really wasn't even thinking about that till this convo.
Concluding Thoughts and Future Themes
01:00:01
Speaker
Yeah, well, do you have any other thoughts before we wrap it up for today, Gianna? Oh, man. If anyone wants to hit up a pumpkin patch with me, I'm feeling like I'm in a pumpkin patch kind of mood. Yeah. So you know, slide into my DMs once Instagram is back up. Oh, yeah. Instagram is being weird also. So if you didn't see resources or any images or anything from us with this episode, that's why. Yeah.
01:00:28
Speaker
Don't act like you don't have time to listen to this episode because your social media is down. Hey. Also, if there are any art pop tarts in the Boston area, any Boston cream pie babies, please hit me up. I would love to meet you. I'd love to chat with you. I'd love to learn more about some of the things to see in the area. That would be awesome. And Danishes, you do have your assignments, so we will be checking in soon.
01:00:58
Speaker
Yes. For the upcoming month of October, again we are going to be covering a Halloween theme every week during this month. Next week we are going into cult and camp in Halloween horror films. Then we've got some pet death and spirituality talk and we have a special guest at the end of the month
01:01:19
Speaker
to talk with us about horror and gender in a final girl discussion. And then at the beginning of November, we are also excited to have another guest to talk with us about Hontology and Dia de los Muertos. So please make sure you're signed up for our monthly newsletter and then you will get all of these updates about upcoming episodes right to your inbox every first Tuesday of the month.
01:01:43
Speaker
Yay. Well, with that, everybody be safe, enjoy your first week of spooky season, and we'll talk to you all next Tuesday. Bye everyone. Art Pop Talk's executive producers are me, Bianca Martucci-Vinc. And me, Gianna Martucci-Vinc. Music and sounds are by Josh Turner and photography is by Adrienne Turner. And our graphic designer is Sid Hammond.
01:02:27
Speaker
you