A video by Lisa Kirk and Gabriel Jeffrey for the new Revolution fragrance.
Update: video no longer available, sorry!
9 Comments
Leave a comment, or read more about commenting at Now Smell This. Here's our privacy policy, and a handy emoticon chart.
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Revolution? A sniper carrying out a hit? Two good-looking people in balaclavas? Have these people even opened a history textbook?
Again, this is part of a conceptual art piece — and would assume the good looking people are part of the commentary on conventional perfume advertising. This is part of Lisa Kirk’s statement on her website:
“Lisa Kirk’s work explores the contradictions of consumerism and the aestheticization of formerly radical political signifiers. Informed by contemporary reality television culture, her projects are intentionally infused with an overflow of symbols that imply something “real” is happening. Kirk deploys strategies designed to draw in an audience stretching beyond the parameters of the “art world,” and seeks to challenge what art can be in the 21st century.”
And this review, from Nunu, also gets at what they’re trying to do:
” Once inside the bomb shelter-cum-terrorist cell, a “commercial” for Revolution Pipe Bomb: The Fragrance starts to play and you see legs in combat boots running through Soho, alternating with shots of confused bystanders. Cut to a sniper, who shoots a person, then cut back to the running legs. At the end of the short film, two black-clad figures wearing face masks confront each other, then rip off their masks to reveal a beautiful woman and a handsome male counterpart. It’s the kind of dramatic pairing-off you see in fashion or fragrance ads all the time, followed by a product shot: “Revolution. A new fragrance.” I can’t quite remember the script, but you can imagine the voiceover, it’s one we’ve all heard (I hear it everyday when I spritz myself with perfume).
The production values of Kirk’s “commercial” are as high as any fashion or beauty ad–and, in fact, I was reminded of the fashion films I watched when I wrote The New Fashion Porn for The Daily Beast, seductive yet frighteningly hollow and unaware of their own ridiculousness. But Kirk’s “Revolution” is self-aware, of course; it’s an execution of Guy Debord’s concept of detournment – “culture jamming” – the reappropriation of the visual and narrative techniques used in advertising as a means to critique it.”
http://www.thenunu.com/661/revolution-pipe-bomb-by-lisa-kirk/
Oh, I think I ‘get it’, but ultimately, this appears to glamorize something horrific. I’m not a fan of the concept.
So interesting how negatively people have reacted to this. I didn’t find that it glamorized anything at all. Maybe I am too easily buying into the concept, LOL…
Robin – I’m probably being overly sensitive and over-reacting to this. It just rubbed me the wrong way, obviously!
Oh, I don’t know — clearly you’re not alone! It has rubbed most everybody the wrong way.
Even though I understand what they are trying to achieve, the fact that they are still selling a product at the same time seems to me to discredit them somewhat. It’s like, “we are highlighting important issues that effect the world today and also the ridiculousness of fragrance companies and their sometimes insipid ad copy but… can you still buy our product, it smells good!”
Then again, that could be the whole point of the exercise – companies profiting indirectly from human misery.
I wonder if any profits are being donated to a particular cause? I guess then it would probably make sense to me.
Well, it does not sound like they’re selling it on a very large scale. I appreciate it because it’s rare that it’s possible for the public outside of NYC gets to smell any of these sorts of fragrances.