As Marcus Aurelius said, “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact.

Everything we see is a
perspective, not the truth.”

Pleasingly distasteful, melodramatic, gaudy, overdone and sentimental are just some of the
words used to describe kitsch. In the world of the sophisticates that is.

When we at Futurebrands travel through Middle India, we

come across a lot of ‘kitsch’. It presents itself in fantastic
architectural expressions, phantasmical decorations and
much else. We call it ‘kitsch’ because that’s how we have
been conditioned to perceive it.

But is it kitsch for people who inhabit it? Would anyone do anything that is ‘distasteful’ and
then proudly proclaim it? Unlikely, as what may appear as a gaudy exaggeration to one can be a
glorious celebration for the other.

It is perhaps in the rarefied world of aesthetes that subtlety is valued most. But is taste all
about subtlety? Or is it that the stamp of ‘good taste’ automatically transfers a notion of
nuance, of subtlety? The latter does seem possible. In which case, anything that emerges from
the street is unlikely to be ‘subtle’ unless it has passed into what we would call the ‘craft’ or the
‘folk’ traditions.

Where does then kitsch come from?

I would believe that kitsch, or the notion of it, is derived from the appropriation of Popular
Culture. When viewed through the lens of aesthetic sophistication, popular expression may
appear tawdry and crass. However transplant the same expression into an alternate context
and the transformation of the gaze and in the consumption is palpably different.

The perception and the filter through which we look at an object for example, define the style
of that object. This filter, gaze, perception, is derived from the context it operates in. Context,
then, becomes an overriding factor which dictates how we see things. Marcel Duchamp forced
us to relook at the urinal simply by removing it from its native context and placing it in another.
The artistic merit was not about the placement of the urinal as an exhibit, but the introspection
generated by its displacement.

Likewise Kitsch is the notion we apply to a certain expression when it is taken out of its
generative context and placed in an alien, almost voyeuristic, setting. In its native context that
particular expression may not stand out spectacularly and may actually serve a practical or
emotional purpose. At best it may be a spontaneous expression of the latent aesthetic.

De-contextualization, thus, becomes a key generator of Kitsch. De-

contextualization and appropriation into another milieu which has a
separate set of filters of appreciation and consumption are what
transform an everyday expression into Kitsch.

It is not as exploitative as it may be beginning to sound. This

appropriation is a two way process. While Art and design (A+D), which
might be representational of a sophisticated aesthetic, appropriate
from the popular culture, popular culture too in turn, appropriates
from the realm of high art. This loop is thus closed and is cyclic.

All would have been well I suppose, if that is where we left it at. A two way street with each
taking from the other, each depending on the other and each critiquing the other. The
uncomfortable questioning arises when we start to examine the attitudes that inform these
respective gazes.

In the world of mass culture, this appropriation is propelled by aspiration, while the
appropriation into art comes from a stance taken. A stance that may be looking down from a
perch of a ‘higher aesthetic’ and may tend to ‘look down’ upon the popular culture.

This might become judgmental, weighing the

merits and sensibilities of the popular on the
scales of its academic sophistication. Such a
stance does introduce a slight tension which
becomes palpable in any dialogue about these
two world views.
The appropriation by the popular culture of the high aesthetic is usually driven by aspiration
and is an emotional pull; the appropriation by high art tends to be cerebral and thought
through.

The Commerce of Kitsch:

It is not just high art or design that is the progenitor of Kitsch, the market plays its role as well.
Markets don’t assign nomenclature and will therefore not label their produce as Kitsch.
Marketers sell aspirations and that may at times appear kitschy. The ‘Valentine’s Day’
vocabulary around the heart/soft toys/sentimentality and its myriad interpretations in Middle
India are a case in the point. The Indian Film Industry also plays an active role here to peddle
these rituals and the signals around the myth of romance.

This example is to illustrate two points. One, the role the market plays in the propagation of a
certain mind-set and the other, more important in the context of kitsch, is that this aesthetic is
not at all kitschy in the milieu where it is generated and consumed. The context is at play again.
Another example to illustrate this point is to take a look at some objet d’art. The context in
which they are sold decides their value. An artifact may be sold for thousands of rupees and
another for a couple of hundred rupees notwithstanding that there may be little, if any,
cognizable difference between the two.

The Sub-Text of Kitsch:

Andy Warhol has long been the poster boy of Pop Art. Pop Art, which sometimes
metamorphoses into Kitsch and vice versa. I borrow from Warhol the iconic graphics that he
created by hypnotically repeating well-known images, and see how they inspire kitsch.

Thukral & Tagra

 This would seem pretty
straightforward. But there is
a lot more to kitsch than
appears, especially if viewed
in its original context. An
image of the president used
in a Warhol-ian grammar
may just be another pop-art
representation, no doubt
with its own sub text. But put
the same image into its
generative context that of
rural Punjab, and of a
passport photo shop, the
whole meaning-system changes drastically. The image then tells a different story, of aspiration,
desire, and ambition. The smiling countenance of the president holds a promise to those who
inhabit this context and their life-stories are interwoven in and around that promise. Similarly
while we find art projects using the bill board painters of film industry and Madhubala throw
cushions interesting and diverting, these images when transcribed onto numerous autos and
trucks around the subcontinent tell tales of dreams and fantasies that invigorate the lives of
those who have adopted them.

Likewise the semiotic around rituals might

have been appropriated as tongue-in-cheek
reference to our cultural beliefs, riddled as
they are with stereotypes; it is difficult even
for the most evolved connoisseur to break
away from their embedded meanings
completely. The nimbu-mirchi may be
objectified and even stylized, but at a deeper
level it still addresses the belief system which
created it in the first place.
Appropriation Vs Interpretation:

In this tussle of appropriation and

stances, perhaps there is a more
inclusive way of looking at things.
Appropriation happens when we de-
contextualize anything. We remove it
from its native context, and plant it as it is into another milieu and look at it with that milieu
specific gaze. This naturally leads to some amount of judgment either way. If we were to
replace Appropriation with Interpretation and De-contextualization with Re-Contextualization,
we might arrive at newer interpretations and expressions, which not only derive from a
particular milieu but also mould themselves into another that they have been now asked to
inhabit.

This may however, dilute Kitsch, as we understand it today and take away some of the edge.
Kitsch does have a certain quirkiness to it, which makes us relook and rethink things and that
may be the reason why a case can be made for it to stay the way it is. So in a kitschy way…the
Kitsch is dead..Long live the Kitsch!

All photographs are by the Futurebrands team, during their various travels through Middle India
The diagrams and their content are by the author.