Pop Art and Assemblage

What is the role of pop art and assemblage on mass culture?

Art relies on the society around us. Because of the impact and control of consumerism mass culture is centered around production. The use of everyday objects show the impact of the viewer’s buying habits being exposed as just a part of itself being part of a capitalist system. The person’s part of the system, making them less valuable than the item being sold. The use of cultural objects to critique society changes how artists see the very point of art. Pop/assemblage use consumerism to challenge it through the buying or the representation of the materials being ultimately as pointless as the system itself views the people. Assemblage is buying materials and reaffirms the artist’s identity as counter-culture by showing a wider audience who didn’t buy the product. It is a pointless waste of money and effort on material that is better spent on the person viewing the material.

Below is a pop art piece by Andy Warhol of Marilyn Manroe called Marilyn Dyptych. This piece is successful becuase it shows the irony of obssessive pop culture by representing Marilyn Manroe repeatedly mimicking the obsession over her. She is represented with bright fake colors and a wash of grey textures on the right. It is successful in my opinion because it shows the irony of pop culture of obsessing about a celebrity. How many times do we need to see her re-represented? The over-emphasis of her image shows the irony of this over-emphasis of her status as an icon. Also she is washed out on the right in black and white showing that the translation of her is lost through this repeated obssession.