Hasta La Ideas

El Lissitzky Video Editing Suite (2011), part of Jon Rafman’s Brand New Paint Job series

“Digitally skinning an object in a 3D program is a simple process of changing the surface of an object or environment. That’s what I like about Brand New Paint Job—it walks the line between art and design by forcing High Modernist painting into becoming wallpaper, and in the process realizing one of painting’s greatest fears, which is becoming decorative. In the same way the functional room or object becomes somewhat useless in having itself covered and being turned into an art object. It’s also a comment on the nature of the relationship between art and design, and how important design is to art. Design is a huge part of the art vernacular—even though it’s deconstructed and used in anti-design ways—especially for my generation, where people are using and appropriating branding techniques and corporate aesthetics. It’s almost troll-like: on one level I’m trolling the paintings and on another level I’m trolling interior-design chic as a concept.”

–Jon Rafman in an interview with Stephen Froese that appears in the new issue of PIN-UP

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