t~iipyrighi 2005 by the

Naponal An l^ucation Associaiion

Studin in An Educaiion
A Journal of Usucs and Rncin-h
2005. ^6(3), 197-210
What? Clotheslines and Popbeads Aren*t Trashy
Anymore?: Teaching About Kitsch
Kristin G. Congdon
I hiiuemty of Central Floritla
Doug Blandy
I hiiversity of Oregon
In rhis arricle, we explore changing definitions of kitsch and simultaneously
examine the relevance of kiisch to contemporary society. Using a number of
examples, including a focus on kitsch related to September 11, 2001, we explore
the current popularity of kitsch in society. We analyze rhe growth and influence
of kit.sch in everyday life and in che art world. We argue that kirsch makes our
pkiralism visible and that kirsch is a means to resist culturnl and aesthetic hege-
mony and power. Implications for art educarion are provided.
Kitsch, depending largely on context, can be defined in numerous ways.
For example. Art Nouveau is sometimes described as kitsch, often in a
degrading manner. It is thought to be decorative, filling a lower level
function in the modernist art world. In a recent exhibition, organized by
the Victoria and Albert Museum, an effort was made to reassess Art
Nouveau beyond rhe kitsch associated with its embellishment and orna-
mentation (Riding, 2000, p. AR23). While this exhibition attempted to
separate what the curators saw as the art form from rhe kirsch, it also
represented a missed opportunity to address the important social implica-
tions of kitsch, which will be discussed in this article. However, the
Victoria and Albert Museum exhibii is important because, until recently,
it was unusual for so-called fine art museums to deal with conceptions
and examples of kitsch.
Objects identified as kitsch are usually associ-
ated with items integrated into rhe everyday lives
of people. Consider, for example, the plastic pink
Ramingo, the velvet Elvis painting, or the Las
Vegas snow globe. Attitudes that people bring to
their appreciation of (or distaste for) kitsch will
vary. Kitsch may be revered as a treasured
memento of a significant event or be appreciated
with a sense of itony. In relation to the later, the
ubiquitous plastic flamingo is thought to be so
tacky (read as kitsch) that a current trend in Florida is to temporarily
place dozens of them as a joke in up-scale and conservatively landscaped
yards under cover of night (Erickson, 2000, pp. Al & A14; McCombs
2001, p. D4). Residents are said to have been "flocked." Kitsch can
Correspondence
rc^rding this article
may be sent to Kristin
G. Congdon ai the
Cultural Hcrilagc
AlliaJicc, School of Film
and Digital Media.
Univt-ruty of Central
Florida, Orlando, FL
32816. E-mail:
kcon gd o n
cc.ucg.cdu
Big Orange.
Photo by Bud Lee.
Studies in Art Education
197
Kristin G. Congdon and Doug Blandy
Clothesline.
Photo by Bud Lee
also be associated with gender, for example, a "girly" world like the world
of Betty Paige pin-ups, frilly lingerie from Frederick's of Hollywood, and
spiked high-heeled shoes are associated with fetnininitj' in the extreme.
Kitsch in the girly world can be so elaborate that ultra-feminine drag
queens are looked to for expertise, moving kitsch, in this case, towards a
cross-gender kind of experience (Bright, 1997. p. 132). Through its asso-
ciation with gender and sexual orientation, kitsch has also been linked
with "camp," partictilarly Sontag's (1961) delineation ot "camp" as anifi-
cial, ironic, playful, stylish, exaggerated, and theatrical. For Sontag, many
examples of camp are also kitsch. For Felluga (2004) camp is self-
conscious kitsch. Welch (2003) elaborates on the relationship between
kitsch and camp by arguing that camp amplifies kitsch by
focusing on... irony, aestheticism, theatricality and humor. For
example: A bed is not campy. A bed displayed as art is probably
kitschy. But a paint-splattered bed, previously occupied by two
men, hung on the wall, is definitely campy, (p. 1)
Kitsch is traditionally associated with bad taste. Kirschenblatt-Gimblctt
(1998) suggests looking
no farther than neighborhoods where...
certain property values will plummet with
appearances of clotheslines, satellite dishes,
storage sheds, birdbaths, or recreational
vehicles or the wrong types of lawn grass,
mailboxes, awnings, or siding material,
(p. 265)
Kitsch, a concept originating in the 19th centur)'
among German art dealers to describe bad art, is
commonly associated with fakes, aesthetic rubbish,
and that which is cheap. While (good) art is thought to require effort and
seriousness, kitsch is linked with pleasure and entertainment. Kuika's
(1996) conceptual analysis of kitsch as an aesthetic category supports
this view by identifying kitsch as being deficient and less valuable in
all ways than art.
Because of its association with bad taste, kitsch is devalued aestheti-
cally, economically, and culturally. Greenberg (1939) affirmed tbe devalu-
ation of kitsch within a modernist perspective in his now famous essay
"Avant-Garde and Kitsch," in which kitsch was linked with the aestheti-
cally undesirable, not suitable for cultivated people and identified as low
culture. Greenberg ultimately made "social snobbery look progressive"
(Gopnik, 1998, p. 73). Kirschenblatt-Gimblett (1998) amplifies
Greenberg's attitude towards kitsch by noting, "kitsch is to caste what
superstition is to religion--somebody else's mistake" (p. 276).
Kirschenblatt-Gimblett perceives that kitsch is not of the wealthy, academ-
ically educated populace. What is implicit in these attitudes towards kitsch
198 Studies in Art Education
Teaching About Kitsch
are values associated with a capitalist economy driven by mass production
and public consumption. Simply put, good taste is associated with those
who control the most capital and do not need to base consumption on
the afiordability promised by mass production.
Kammen (1999), a historian of culture, notes that correlations between
taste and social class were much discussed from the 1870s until after
World War IL However, beginning in the 1950s the relationship between
social class and cultural choices became more elusive. He attributes this
elusiveness to the development of more inclusive definitions of culture
and the fact that beginning in the 1960s increasing numbers of academi-
cally educated people participated in popular and mass culture.
Beginning in the late 20th century with the rise of post-modernism
and continuing into the 21st, attitudes towards kitsch have changed.
Kundcta (1988) was predictive of this change in attitude when he wrote
benevolently about kitsch in relation to human nature. For the novelist
Kundera;
Kitsch is the translation of the stupidity of received ideas into the
Linguage of beaury and feeling. It moves us to tears of compassion
for ourselves, for the banality of what we think and feel ...
(pp. 163-164)
Another reason for the change in attitude towards kitsch may be, as
Kirschenblatt-Gimblett (1998) suggests, that kitsch is a move toward
liberating pluralism, "an affirmation of the possibility of creative expres-
sion in all quarters" (p. 281). This observation by Kirschenblatt-Gimblett
is in keeping with our previous research associated with the contemporary
and historical human predisposition towards the "fake" (Congdon &
Blandy, 2001). In this research we examined the challenges and opportu-
nities associated with fakcry within the context of Gomez-Pena's (1996)
five worlds of contemporary life and art education. The cityscapes, music,
visual images, creative writing, and other examples of fakery that we
examined are considered kitsch within many traditional and/or modernist
definitions of the term. We concluded that youth culture characterized by
a voracious and self-conscious aptitude and appetite for sampling and
remixing from all the cultural detritus that surrounds us is contributing
significantly to redefining and newly defining life and material culture in
the 21st century. Postulating a liberating sixth world of critical engage-
ment and social reconstruction, we identified art educators as important
partners in working with children and youth to negotiate the inestimable
distractions and illusions associated with contemporary life. This work by
art educators and theit students in rhe sixth world would be informed by
those art educators writing over the past several decades who have assisted
[he held in formulatmg a critical pedagogy based upon methods of social
deconstruction and reconstruction.
Studies in Art Education 199
Kristin G. Congdon and Doug Blandy
Tourist with
Seashell. Photo
by Bud Lcc.
Our purpose in this article is to build on our conclusions associated
with the fake by focusing on kitsch. A-s a part ot this purpose we re.sist
defining kitsch and instead recognize kitsch as having clusters of meaning
associated with aesthetic, socio-cultural, economic, and political points of
view. Kitsch can appeal to all of the senses, and has
been closely linked with fakery, depravity, senti-
mentality, vulgarity, cra.ssness, and the formulaic,
but it is also about parody, irony, and satire.
Kitsch has been associated with low art, the uned-
ucated, and it is economically cheap, mass-
produced, and often considered tacky. It did not
fit into the realm of modernist tastes. Partly
because it has heen so debased and is now
enjoying an elevation in status, the critique of
kitsch stimulates our interest.
Our method of working with kitsch Is like that of the "mash-up" DJ
who juxtaposes samples of music pulled from multiple genres to recontex-
tualize and remix cultural expressions for the purpose of communicating
new meanings. We juxtapose and remix kitsch with questions and issues
long thoiighr important in our society and art education. In doing so, we
propose a place for kitsch within the context of educating children, youth,
and adults about att and material culture. In this article, our examples
will be broad based and include Latin American embellishment, responses
to the events of September 11 in New York, our contemporary collecting
frenzy, and the proliferation of tattooing. We look at reasons for teaching
our students various aspects of kitsch. We will focus on (1) analyzing the
popularity of kitsch; (2) viewing kitsch as liberating pluralism in the arts;
(3) recognizing kitsch as one strategy and aspect of cultural resistance; and
(4) suggesting implications for art education.
The Popularity of Kitsch
Kitsch perplexes and unnerves. Kitsch simultaneously repulses and
seduces by its apparent superficiality and appeal to baser instincts. Kitsch
is also perplexing because understanding and appreciating kitsch cannot
be reduced to simplistic claims such as it is all about "junk" or all about
"class." However, the perplexity associated with kitsch does not dissuade
people from appreciating and collecting it. It is likely that kitsch's appeal
may, in pan, be due to its resistance to classification.
In the April 30, 2002 issue of The New York Times, Matanowski
reported on a trend towards the passionate collecting of knickknacks.
bric-a-brac, and shotzkes. The popularity of PBS s Antiques Roadshow is
only one visual aspect of the current fi'enzy. Malanowski's article suggesLs
that perhaps one of the reasons for the show's popularity is that it pays
attention to everyday collectors who ordinarily gee little tespect or visi-
bility (pp. AR19 & AR23). It may be that one reason we are so drawn to
200 Studies in Art Education
Teaching About Kitsch
these collectors is because it is so hard explain why they collect what they
do. Malanowski writes:
The fact is that collectors are not so much nutty as inexplicahle;
the man who lives to hunt down rare decks of Canadian railroad
playing cards cannot explain why to someone to whom the cards are
just, you know, cards. Who can explain why Andy Warhol bought
200 cookie jars for $2 apiece, let alone why somebody bought 145
of them for $198,605 at the Warhol estate sale? (p. AR23)
It may be, Malanowski continues, that these collectors, when placed on
the Roadshow, are making a claim about having taste and intelligence.
You may have missed the dot.com boom, but those Eskimo hunting
masks that an ancestor acquired a century ago and that youVe been
storing behind the Christmas decorations ... [may be] worth a lot
more than your shares ofDrkoop.com. (Malanowski, 2000, p. AR19)
Partly because of this new interest in the everyday and "the great find,"
many universities are beginning collections that would have been unheard
of just a short time ago. The University of Cincinnati has mote than 300
snow globes; Ohio Stare University has accrued over 100 pairs of glasses
worn by celebrities; Western Michigan University collects antique hearing
aids; Northeastern University has nearly two dozen physical education
uniforms worn by women in the 1920s to the 1960s; and the University
of California at Davis has 10,000 shopping bags from all over the world
(Yachnin, 200I,p. A8).
Exhibitions that include kitsch are increasing as collections expand. In
2001, for example, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture of the
Museum of New Mexico had an exhibition on "Tourist Icons: Native
American Kitsch, Camp and Fine Art Along Route 66." Included were a
necklace from the Santo Domingo Pueblo made from bits of battery
casings and red phonographic records instead of the usual precious stones;
numerous pairs of salt and pepper shakers; and miniature models of
pueblos and kivas (Brockman, 2001, p. AR26). More tecendy, the Studio
Museum in Harlem put on an exhibition titled "Black Romantic." Over
15,000 calls to artists went out nationwide resulting in a selection of
works described as "a kind of a Norman Rockwell-meets-George Hurrell
pictorial pridefest" (Plagens 2002, p. 62). Critic Peter Piagens writes,
"And there's some good stuff in it" (p. 62).
Besides giving collectors a positive identity and museums something
new to display and discuss, kitsch may be popular today because of its
nostalgic references. Much of it is inexpensive, and sometimes it comes
from recycling old items into something new, like using an old toilet or
bathtub as yard art. It is the ready-made that is manipulated and made
unique, granting it nostalgic aspects to past eras (Turner, 1996, p. 65).
While most all kitsch is questionable by elitist and classist standards,
Mexican kitsch may have been relegated to the lowest rung of kitschness
Studies in Art Education 201
Kristin G. Congdon and Doug Blandy
because "it is an already derivative producta Xerox of a Xerox"
(Stavans, 2000, p. B5). In other words, there is delight in the reproduc-
tion. Mexicans take American pop culture (unoriginal material culture)
and they copy it. When questioned why as a youth he enthusiastically
read the strips El Payo, KalimAn, and has Superrnachos, Stavans, a Spanish
professor at Amhert College, explains that as a child "|what] I wanted
most was salvation through escape to become a superheroa las mexi-
canapart mariachi and part Spiderman, to ridicule the political elite, to
travel to the Chiapas rain forest by horse with a flamboyant maid by my
side" (Stavans, 2000, p. B5). Kitsch, therefore, can unite you with a
mission, a dream, or a needed journey. In this regard kitsch liberates!
Kitsch as Liberating Pluralism
The material cultute of everyday life in a democracy Is associated with
the plurality of ways in which people assemble, work, and act together for
a variety of political, aesthetic, economic, familial, religious, and/or
educational purposes. In coming together to share celebratory experiences
of ever)'day events, people generate creative and symbolic forms such as
"custom, belief, technical skill, language, literature, art, architecture,
music, dance, drama, ritual, pageantry, handicraft..." (Bartis & Bowman,
2000). Participating in this way equips us with the ability to communi-
cate what is important; it grants refuge; it allows us to respond to the
problems and challenges associated with everyday life: it provides amuse-
ment and pleasure, and livelihood; and it exemplifies ingenuity. The incli-
nation to be creative is so ordinary that it is often overlooked for the
extraordinary contribution it makes to such commonplace activities as
cooking, fishing, keeping house, gardening, computing, and the multitude
of other endeavors required in daily life (Congdon & Blandy, 2003).
Depending upon one s point of view and/or the definitions that one is
sympathetic to, a great deal of what people are Inclined to make or appre-
ciate in the process of living their lives is a broad array of kitsch. This
inclination to embrace kitsch in this regard is profoundly exemplified in
the kitsch associated with the attack on the World I rade C'enter in New
York City on September 11, 2001.
In summer 2002. we visited "Ground Zero" in lowet Manhattan. Most
of the rubble had been removed from the area. What remained of the
New York World Trade Center's twin towers wetc the sunken walls or
"bath tub" engineered to keep the nearby East River at bay. Traces still
remained of the personal remembrances that visitors have left at the site,
although what we saw was much reduced ftom what was present in the
immediate days and weeks following the attacks. However, in keeping with
what can usually be found at pilgrimage sites, were numerous street
vendors selling September 11 paraphernalia. We saw all manner of stufi^ed
toys bearing 9/11 insignia of various types; key rings displaying the towers;
snow globes containing the towers; postcards of the towers' attack and
202 Studies in A rt Education
Teaching About Kitsch
aftermath; twin tower paperweights; commemorative books; all manner
of 9/11 t-shlrts and hats; New York City Police and Fire Department
memorabilia; American flags, and generally lots of red, white, and blue.
If mass production, vulgarity, gaudiness, emotional manipulation, and
cheapness characterize kitsch, then September 11 is clearly kitschified.
Some are outraged by this kitschification. A coast guard officer posted to
Salon.com that
Many of those I have served with take ptide in quiet resolve,
conscientious action, and muted yet sincere support of others. In
short, we refuse to be victims or buy into the commercialized veneer
oi Sept. 11 because we have a job to do for the American People,
and we know that no kitschy generalization will make that job go
away or make it any easier. (Hoerncmann, 2003)
The novelist Philip Roth wrote mournfully and nostalgically of visiting
the Twin Towers area shortly after their destruction and thankfully before
the "kitschification" we saw set in. He expressed his aversion and outrage
to this kitschification by saying that the only story he takes from 9/11
is the kitsch in all its horrornot the horror of what happened,
but the great distortion of what happened. It's almost embarrassing,
the kitschification of 3,000 people's deaths. Other cities have experi-
enced far worse catastrophes One wouldn't dream of slighting
these people, it Is awful, but we need to keep a sense of proportion
about these things. What we've been witnessing since September 11
is an orgy of national narcissism and a gratuitous sense of victimiza-
tion that is repellent. (Roth cited in Leigh, 2003, p. 1)
The disgust expressed by the coast guard officer and Roth about the
kitschification of 9/11 is consciously or unconsciously associated with a
very condescending and negative view of kitsch. While we need to tread
lightly here out of respect for those who see this kitschification of 9/11 as
aberrant and incongruent with their grief, we must also remember that
the negative connotations associated with kitsch may have more to do
with sexist, classist. and racist attitudes that contribute to an art/kitsch
dichotomy that were discussed earlier. Kitsch, in this way of thinking, is
about that which Is distasteful, base, and unthoughtful; it is something to
get rid of. However, when material culture, such as that now found at
Ground Zero, is considered from psychological, historical, sociological,
and anthropological perspectives, this dichotomy disintegrates except to
the extent that it illustrates a particular view among a certain group of
people at a particular time.
The kitschification of September 11 also memorializes September 11.
Kitsch as memorial is not at all uncommon. What would have been
surprising and disconcerting is if September 11 had not been kitschified.
Careful browsers in antique and junk stores will find that the attack on
Pearl Harbor, which September 11 is sometimes compared to, was
Studies in Art Education 203
Kristin G. Congdon and Doug Blandy
memorialized in emotionally laden posters Vk'ith tattered flags and admo-
nitions to "never forget" (Mieike, 2003). The United States' resulting
entry into World War II encouraged myriad forms of kitsch including
songs such as the "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." {Mieike, 2003). As a child,
[co-author of this article] Blandy discovered in his grandparents' base-
ment a mass-produced poster memorializing the RMS Titanic. If his
grandparents had been collectors of such memorabilia they might also
have had the sheet music associated with such songs as "It Was a Sad Day
When the Great Ship Went Down," and "Dovi-n With the Oid Canoe"
or ceramic models of the ship (Mieike, 2003).
Government entities in New York City are also moving to respond to
the events of September 11 through memorialization. Architects are
pondering how to officially memorialize the loss of life at the World
Trade Centers. The architect Hugh Pearman (2003) observes that
No one has yet thought of an appropriate way of memorializing
mass killing by terrorist action. Not only did no battle take place,
not only were no conventional weapons used, not only was this a
civilian affair, but even the enemy wa.s uncertain. So all the usual
supporting elements needed to generate a memorial are missing.
(p-3)
Memoriaiization is at least of two types: Those that are official and those
that are a spontaneous outpouring of grief. It is this latter type that inter-
ests us in relation to kitsch. Consider the thousands of plastic wrapped
flowers that appeared at Kensington Palace after the death of Princess
Diana. Several years ago we watched as a school yard fence in Sptingfield,
Oregon became a site for placing flowers, photographs, newspaper arti-
cles, handwritten notes, stuffed animals, balloons, and other miscella-
neous materials placed there to recognize those who were killed or
wounded in the Thurston High School shooting.
As the architects were planning, those thousands killed or injured in
rhe attack on the World Trade Center were immediately and sponta-
neously being memorialized through notes and pictures attached to the
surrounding walls. Shordy after the collapse of the Twin Towers street
vendors were selling items like those described earlier. Some people, as
one possible response to 9/11, are bringing the events of September 11
into their own lives through kitsch. This is not a passive response to the
event, bur an activist and liberating one. People are undoubtedly buying
these images and objects in order to deal with their stupefaction (Kundera,
1988) and as a way to personally memorialize rather than waiting for the
so-called experts and municipal officials to do it for them.
Clearly there Js no consensus around what constitutes appropriate grief
and/or a memorial response ro the attacks on the Twin Towers. Multitudes
of public responses, both ideological and practical, are circulating
consciously and unconsciouslyaround the issue. While some might
204 Studies in Art Education
Teaching About Kitsch
desire a consensus about what constitutes an appropriate response to
September 11 reached through reason, what is occurring are a plurality of
multiple, simultaneous, conflicting, and hotly debated responses appro-
priate to a pluralistic and democratic society.
Another example of kitsch's link to pluralism can be seen in Catholic
imagery found in church souvenir stands. No longer collected just by
Catholics, these items are used in up-scaled storefront windows and are
used as decorations in nightclubs. Olalquiaga, (1996) explains:
Suddenly, holiness is all over the place. For $3.25 one can buy a
Holiest Water Fountain in the shape of the Virgin, while plastic
fans engraved with the images of your favorite holy people go for
$1.95as do Catholic identification tags: 'I'm a Catholic. In case
of accident or illness please call a priest.' Glowing rosary beads can
be found for $125 and, for those in search of verbal illustrations,
a series of'Miniature Stories of the Saints' is available for only
$1.45.... Even John Paul II has something to contribute; on his
travels the Holy Father leaves behind a trail of images, and one can
buy his smiling face in a variety of Pope gadgets including alarm
clocks, pins, picture frames, T-shirts and snowstorm globes, (p. 271)
Olalquiaga continues to say that this "holy invasion" has now invaded the
galleries.
Many Latin American artists clutter their work with everyday objects
that communicate a brash and bold look. They play on stereotypes,
making a statement by being excessive. Sometimes they do this in order
to critique the powerful art establishment that has both disappeared and
invalidated their cultural aesthetic. Pep6n Osorio, for instance, is well
known for embellishing furniture and household items in an effort to
root his work in the social and political space of the Latin American
immigrant in the United States (Congdon & Hallmark. 2002). His art
hearkens back to a home country and purposely reflects a cultural bias
that dismisses a particular kind of aesthetic as it flies in the face of mini-
malism and the Puritanical dislike of decoration (Fusco, 1991). By
making visible another kind of aesthetic, artists like Osorio broaden the
art world and make its aesthetic more inclusive. He resists die dominant
art culture by playing up this aesthetic to an extreme.
Kitsch and Resistance
Greenberg's power as a critic established kitsch as a lowly person's
artistic taste. He claimed:
1 here has always been on che one side the minority of the powerful
-and therefore the cultivatedand on the other the great mass of
the exploited and poorand therefore the ignorant. Forma! culture
has always belonged to the flrst, while the last have had to contend
themselves with folk or rudimentary culture, or kitsch." (quoted in
Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, 1998, p. 279)
Studies in Art Education 205
Kristin G. Congdon and Doug Blandy
A Greenbergian perspective on the kitschification of September 11
would identify this phenomenon as one triore example of the "great mass"
of people turning to kitsch to express an uncultivated communicative
response. He might also negatively critique the work of Pepon Osorio.
We wonder what his response would be in this regard, co this kitschifica-
tion process as expressed on tbe body itself in the form of tattoos.
Anthropologists have informed us that "every culture's ideas about the
body both reflect and sustain ideas about the broader social and cultural
universe in which those bodies are located." (Benson, 2000, p. 234). It is
through our bodies that we make visible, to ourselves and others, what we
are." (Benson, 2000, p. 235). In this regard, as recognized by Foucault,
"the body is always 'directly invoived in a political field', its training and
its intelligibility always of concern; the politics of the body is always a
practical politics, a question of power as well as epistemology." (Foucault
cited in Benson, 2000, p. 235)
Memorializing September 11 through kitsch imagery and objects is
vividly expressed in the plethora of September 11 tattoos and tattoo flash
that is appearing nationwide. Frequenting the vendors in lower
Manhattan convinces us that the kitschification of September 11 includes
body customization through the appropriation of the images oi
September 11 tbat are being mass produced and sold on the streets.
The history of tattooing in the United States has always included the
appropriation of images from folk and popular culture (Govenar. 2000).
Tattooist Don Ed Hardy claims, "...tattooing is the greatest art of
piracy Tattoo artists have always taken images from anjxhing available
that customers want to have tattooed on them" (Hardy cited in Benson.
2000, p. 243). The place to see the most tattoos in Portland. Oregon is
tbe Hawthorne neighborhood. If you walk this street on a hot afternoon
you will see a plethora of tattoos with imagery culled from comic strip
characters, team mascots, anime and manga characters, movie and rock
stars, among others. The history of tattooing in the United States has also
always included tattoos as memorials. During the Wotld War I era a very
common tattoo was the "Rose of No-Man's Uuid." This tattoo wa.s based
on both a World War I popular song and the image of a Red Cross nurse
(Govenar, 2000). The quintessential stereotype of a tattoo may be a
banner inscribed with "mother" surrounded by roses and/or swallows.
Tattoos responding to September 11 routinely appear in publications
such as International Tattoo and Skin and Ink. A recent exhibit of
photographs titled "Indelible Memories" at Historic Richmond Town on
Staten Island in New York records tattoos wotn in the region that
commemorates September 11. The photographs, taken by Vinnie Amesse,
document a plethora of images that include porrraits of the deceased, fire-
fighter badges, patriotic symbolism, angels, doves and views of the towers,
among others. In this circumstance, whether we agree witb the sentiments
206 Studies in Art Education
Teaching About Kitsch
or not, imagery, that Roth (Roth cited in Leigh, 2003) would identify as
kitsch, is being used by some ro affirm their own relationship to the
events of September 11 while simultaneously resisting terrorism and offi-
cial memorialization. Consider this in relationship to one petson's
description of being tattooed as
the puncturing, cutting and piercing of the skin: the flow of blood
and the infliction of pain; the healing process, a visible and perma-
nent mark on yet underneath che skin: 'an inside which comes from
the outside ... the exteriorization of the interior which is simultane-
ously the interiorization of the exterior. (Gell cited in Benson, 2000,
p. 237)
September 9/11 tattoos can be seen as a person's way of communi-
cating his or her values, attitudes, and beliefs about the event on the only
surface that can truly be called their own. In chis regard, unlike any offi-
cial memorializing that may take place, the memorial is the person. The
tattoo is also the reference point from which a person can see him or
herself within a historical event felt to be of importance (Benson, 2000).
From this perspective, reality is both shaped and expressed by the tattoo.
People are remarkable in the ways that they are able to u.se culture as a
tool to advance a political agenda and resist hegemony. While we
routinely accept that so-called art can be a part of cultural resistance,
definitions and conceptions of kitsch usually fail to mention this possi-
bility. The 9/11 tattoos remind us of the importance that the body can
have as a site of resistance. We can also study the kitschification of
September 11 in relation to the larger history of resistance, The tattooed
body can be thought of as contributing to those public spaces chat
ptomote an issue but also empower: they build self and group
identities They offer versions of experience and reality, becoming
part of the stories people tell each other: to console, galvanize and
resist. (Duncombe, 2002, p. 8)
The kit.schificaiion of 9/11 mostly may have to do with people taking
images and objects manufactured for the general public and using them
to generate a cultural response of their own. It is important that you not
read our speculations about the kicsch of 9/11 as a valorization of this
particular kitschification process; rather, it is simply illustrative. To date,
there is no consensus around the political implications of 9/11. Resistance
in response to 9/11 is about wanting to make a statement about safety
and security among some, and, sadly, resistance to democratic values
associated with a free society among others.
Implications for Art Education
fCitsch has not been explicitly considered to any great extent within
the literature of art education. This is surprising given that the study of
popular and mass culture has been overwhelmingly accepted within the
Studies in An Education 207
Kristin G. Congdon and Doug Blandy
Field particularly in relation to the study of material and visual culture.
Clearly, what has been called "kitsch" is deeply rooted in issues related to
aesthetics, gender, culture, class, economics, race and ethnicity, and poli-
tics; all of which are integral to the study of material and visual culture.
Even if one rhinks of ir as "bad art," its prevalence makes it relevant to arr
education curricula. Additionally, because so much kitsch is enjoyed,
appropriated, and consumed by youth, it requires attention in our class-
rooms and curricula at all levels of education. As Brown (2003) points our
although kitsch is a "popular" phenomenon, there's .some crossover
among those doing the theorizing and those doing the consuming
the consumption of kitsch artifacts is perhaps most prominent
among young college-educated men and women whose cultural
practices are often difficult to classify.
As art educators we should partner with out students to learn about
kitsch. Our learning .should include the myriad definitions of kitsch,
recognizing that even within and among definitions there will he multiple
and conflicting views on the topic. We should critique such definitions in
relation to the personal and public interests that they represent. Our
thinking about kitsch should recognize that it will he understood and
appreciated variously depending upon the historical, political, economic,
social, and cultural contexts in which it is being discussed and created.
Our learning must also recognize new ways of thinking about kitsch and
the appropriation of kitsch for a multitude of purpo.ses.
Clotheslines and popbeads aren't necessarily trashy anymore. They tell
us about a specific time and place. The visibility of these items and others
like them provide art educators with the means to expand on aesthetic
dialogues, address statements of resistance to the dominant culture, give
presence and agency to a diverse group of voices, and debate and
construct the power of economics in the art world. They, and the other
forms of visual and material culture once only thought to he kitsch, and
rendered invisible or marginalized because of a perceived lack of worth,
should now be recognized as a part of that larger cultural ooze, compost,
sludge, and atmosphere that in combination forms our cultural commons.
Tt is in this common space that our learning partnership with students can
penetrate, subvert, and/or leap across the border between reified and
hegemonic definitions and conceptions of cultural products and practices
into what we have referred to earlier as the sixth world (Congdon &
Blandy, 2001). In this world of critical pedagogy, kitsch becomes one
more source from which students and teachers can sample, mix, appro-
priate, recycle, overlay, agitate, critique, and ultimately reconstruct their
physical and mental environment for the purpose of creating compelling
arguments and new narratives.
208 Sttuiies in Art Educaiion
Teaching About Kitsch
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