Should Not the Shepherds Feed the Sheep

”Is Christianity and banking compatible? Yes,” said John Varley, chief executive of Barclays PLC. “And is Christianity and fair reward compatible? Yes.”… Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., told the Sunday Times of London he is “doing God’s work.” And Goldman international advisor Brian Griffiths was even more explicit in aligning his work in high finance to the “message” of the Gospels: “The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,” Mr. Griffiths was reported as saying. “We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.” ( Charles Lewis, National Post, nov.14/09 ) Amen; no need to flip coins into the collection tray, we’ll just take it off your monthly statement.

The meek shall not inherit the earth, but, will apparently  be responsible to  pay for the clean  up. Its part of a new mantra called the ”prosperity gospels” and corporations are thumping it up on the business bible circuit known a social responsibility. With the advent of advanced digital technology, camels have no qualms about passing through the eyes of those one time annoying needles to enter the kingdom of zero footprint.

There is a new corporate sponsored site by Volkswagen called TheFunTheory. Nice and coccoon.Warm and toasty Like a Luv Bug in a rug. The idea is to preach responsibility for the environment through installations that were installed in Stockholm then virally circulating the content on YouTube to enhance the image of Volkswagen as a socially responsible, multinational corporation; an oxymoron of sorts.

Marcel Duchamp was the first known artist to appropriate a common object in his art. This challenged the art community in its definition of what is or is not labeled art. Duchamp believed that declaring an object a work of art was the artist’s key role in creating art. In the case of Fountain, he took a urinal, turned it on its side, and signed it with his pseudonym, R. Mutt.

Marcel Duchamp was the first known artist to appropriate a common object in his art. This challenged the art community in its definition of what is or is not labeled art. Duchamp believed that declaring an object a work of art was the artist’s key role in creating art. In the case of Fountain, he took a urinal, turned it on its side, and signed it with his pseudonym, R. Mutt.

The installations are like little altars where the flock can bow, obey, and take mercantile communion, expiate their guilt and fill up their car with more accumulations. A viral campaign for Volkswagen that does without any visual images of their cars. That is, the vehicles are virtual as well.Its a  church of the politically correct that perpetuates the fraud of multiculturalism  and homogenizes many issues, to achieve an economy of scale of opinion and viewpoint .The installations  are pop arty  products of a synthetic and plastic cultural value to keep consumers passively satisfied and acceptingly apathetic, similar to what writer Martin Amis referred to as ” global confrontation with the dependent mind”.

Volkswagen’s ”candid camera” approach is novel in terms of the juxtaposed context to move slow moving inventory  off the lot, but ultimately a fairly mediocre,  banal, and reactionary response to a changing world marked by increasingly vague faith and agnosticism towards corporate religion. A form of religion in these spots  where the ritual of recycling is more important than the ideas. In all likelihood, Volkswagen would like consumers to think of their cars as confessional booths.


mark jenkins

mark jenkins

To take banal recycle bins and bland metro staircases and replace them with more difficult, arresting, and critical art forms, would probably promote a counter movement to the cult of commodity fetishism condoned by Volkswagen. Public service art  by artists like Mark Jenkins and Maurizio Cattelan would lead to more people questioning social life, gender bias, consumption based on false needs etc. Taking the original concept of Marcel Duchamp, Art as a ”ready made” would perhaps fit the aesthetic of a feel-good public art , making people more willing to  recycle and exercise if they imagined a world in which social relations and cultural experiences were not objectified in terms of money, and value of exhange, but a higher, more authentic, and sustainable vibration.

Mark Jenkins

Mark Jenkins

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