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46 Departure a quick look into other IVS depts.
WORD IVS Opinions on taste
A review of John Baldessari’s works
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EVIL THINGS
words by Imke Volkers/ photographs by Armin Hermann/ illustration by Aziza Ahmad
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If we want to discern what good taste is, we must first eliminate bad taste
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With this purpose in mind, the art historian and museum director Gustav E. Pazaurek opened his “Cabinet of Bad Taste” in the Stuttgart state crafts museum in 1909. Pazaurek developed a complex system to categorize all kinds of design mistakes, demonstrating them with actual examples. In keeping with the philosophy of the Deutscher Werkbund, Pazaurek assumes that things have a great influence on people, both aesthetically and morally. Consequently, his catalogue of design mistakes presents a drastic nomenclature which we naturally find disconcerting today. The rubrics with which Pazaurek labelled the objects read like an aesthetic penal code, a vocabulary of evil. The evil nature of the objects derives not from their purpose — from acts that could be performed with them — nor from their symbolism, but from the evil or badness that is manifested in their production, design and functional quality. The present exhibition is the first attempt to reconstruct Pazaurek’s “Cabinet of Bad Taste”, and presents more than 50 objects on loan from the original collection in the State Museum of Württemberg. Furthermore, the exhibition takes Pazaurek’s classification system as a point of reference for an examination of present-day design tendencies. To this end, the historic objects are juxtaposed with a selection of contemporary products
Systematisation by Gustav E. Pazaurek I. Material Mistakes Bad and Spoiled Materials Inferior materials such as knotty wood, poor alloys, or toxic substances; products that are poorly or cheaply processed or manipulated to conceal flaws; distorted moulds, heat checks, spotted or bubbled glaze, colour flaws, glazing flaws, reams. Bizarre Materials Objects of human bone, skin, fingernails or hair; rhinoceros horns, ostrich eggs, shed antlers, animal teeth, vertebrae, feathers, fish scales; lizards, lobster claws, butterfly wings, beetle wings, live fireflies, egg membrane, cherry stones, spices, hazelnuts, straw, pine cones, mosses, tree fungus, cork, coloured sand, vegetables, sugar, butter, ice, bread, etc.
In the age of stylistic pluralism, it seems impossible to establish definitive criteria of “good” or “bad” taste. But a closer look reveals, first, that Pazaurek’s categories are applicable without amendment to countless contemporary objects, bringing to light a design practice that is both ludicrous and ironic, and second, that moral criteria are becoming pertinent again in conjunction with a new consumer consciousness. The “crimes” of today’s objects, however, are not evident prima facie, because they are manifested not in the design, the material or the decoration, but in the social, economic and ecological context. For this reason, new categories must be added to Pazaurek’s catalogue of mistakes. In the last part of the exhibition, the visitor is invited to add to the Encyclopaedia by classifying and situating his own “evil things” in the field of playful and moral dimensions.
“The Scream” as a key chain, according to Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” 1991
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Material Obsessions Painstaking hobby handicrafts with inferior or waste materials which, seen from a distance, look like craft products, such as objects made of postage stamps, matches, cigar rings, patchwork, broken glass, sardine tins, corks, used paper, wax, etc. Violations of Materials Often very cleverly worked objects which overtax or completely disregard the properties of the chosen material; and objects made of perfectly good materials which are poorly or not at all suited to the purpose at hand. Ostentatious Materials Objects made of materials that are too good or too costly; objects that “flaunt their wealth”. The craftsmanship is usually less artful than the valuable material deserves. Material Infringement The substance of one object is used in the spirit of another. These objects are based on clever little ideas; there is no intent to deceive by imitating another material. Rather, the objects are crafted in the style that is appropriate to a foreign material, with its typical forms and marks of handiwork. Material Decoys Material decoys are playful attempts to imitate other materials without disguising the actual material substance of the object. Although the purpose is to create an illusion, the intent is not to deceive, but to make a “more or less clever, but usually shallow material pun.” Material Surrogates Material surrogates are inferior materials masquerading as more valuable ones. They imitate a costly material as closely as possible, with the intent to deceive and defraud the observer. Reverse Surrogates Unlike normal surrogates, reverse surrogates are imitations of an inferior material in a superior one. The substitute material is more expensive than the original.
Ashtray horse’s hoof
Bocksbeutel bottle, covered with patriotic motifs and coins 1915
II. Decorative Mistakes Odd Proportions Obtrusive, abnormal shapes and proportions that detract from the clarity and familiarity of a traditional, functional form.
Minimalism
Manic Ornamentation, Wasteful Decoration Excessive inundation with ornament and extreme decoration, which can deteriorate into the “infectious and therefore very dangerous illness of ornamentational rage”.
looks like
Art as Atonement Addition of decorative elements to hide material flaws or for lack of another way to “distract attention from a botched functional and artistic design”. Misplaced or Misoriented Ornamentation Unskilled use of decorative elements in regard to their relationship to the artistic form or to other decorative elements, or in regard to the intrinsic logic of the ornamentation, such as the direction of growth in botanical motifs. Decorative Brutality “When one of two decorative schemes not only disregards the other, but destroys it to usurp its place, that is brutality.”
Decorative Invasions These objects are formed in a way that is typical for the material, but their surface imitates a different material, such as marbling on wood or gilding on porcelain or glass.
Salt and pepper shakers in the shape of a woman 2009
Recipe and Chance Ornamentation created by the use of time-honoured recipes, especially those that make use of chance, such as ink blots, poured glaze, pictures drawn while in a trance, or pattern designers’ catalogues. Original Decorative Ideas Decorative designs that are contrived, affected or excessively “original”. “Not all originality is praiseworthy. Some kinds of originality can only be called oddity [...] Such things may indeed be original, but that does not make them beautiful.” Unfitting Decorative Motifs Decoration that violates taste or the function of the object; unappetizing decorative motifs; mockery and misuse of national emblems for purely decorative purposes. Anachronistic or Exotic Decoration Motifs and ornaments copied from past stylistic this currents and foreign cultures. Exaggerated Finishing Excessive use of a surface effect such as gilding, mother-ofpearl, iridescence, lustre, or fluorescence. Primitive Decoration An unimaginative, simple pattern used to adorn everything, such as a checkerboard or cube pattern. Naive Decoration and Familiarity Supposed folk art; inappropriately crude craftsmanship.
Moeko Ishida Studded with Stones cell phone 2009
III. Kitsch Cheap mass rubbish with no attention given to the choice of materials, forms and decoration. The most common sub-categories are: Jingoistic Kitsch (especially World War horrors) Topical Kitsch Travel Souvenir Kitsch Folklore and Sportsmen’s Kitsch Devotional Kitsch Commercial Kitsch
Kitsch is King
“The absolute antithesis of artistically inspired work of quality is tasteless mass rubbish, or kitsch: it disregards all the demands of ethics, logic and aesthetics; it is indifferent to all crimes and offences against material, technique, and functional or artistic form; it knows only one commandment: the object must be cheap and yet still attempt to create at least some impression of a higher value.”
IV. Contemporary Mistakes Glorification of Violence Brutalizing objects; objects that encourage or trivialize violence and offences against humans and animals. Harmful Toys Objects that encourage physically or morally harmful activities. Child Labour Objects produced by working children. Waste of Resources Mass-produced, single-use articles; disproportionate, non-sustainable use of limited raw materials. Pollution Insufficient regard for the consequences of the harmful substances involved in production. Cadaver Chic Objects that dramatize or demonstrate Man’s absolute power over the animal kingdom, such as trophies and travel souvenirs. Crimes against Endangered Species Objects made of endangered animal or plant materials. Racist Design Discriminatory use of over-stylized and stereotyped racial characteristics in design. characteristics in design. Mineral water bottle in the form of Madonna
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Exaggerated Claims of Exclusiveness Objects which are declared as exclusive imports, but which are also available domestically, so that the additional cost of the imported objects is unnecessary.
Floor lamp Guns – Lounge Gun Jewelry packaging Conguitos 1998
Professor Gustav Edmund Pazaurek (1865–1935) was not only an art historian, writer and editor, but also a poet and playwright. He was director of the Northern Bohemian Crafts Museum in Reichenberg (Liberec) from 1892 to 1905, and director of the State Crafts Museum in Stuttgart from 1906 to 1932. Pazaurek was also a member of the Deutscher Werkbund from 1908 to 1928. He wrote numerous essays on topics in art history and aesthetics and seminal publications on the formation of taste and on arts and crafts, especially glass and porcelain manufacture, and was editor of the journal Keramik- und Glasstudien. Before devoting himself to art history, Pazaurek wrote plays, including comedies such as Der Kampf mit dem Drachen (“Fighting the Dragon”, 1890), Die Venus (“Venus”, 1890) and Die Liebeserklärung (“The Declaration of Love”, a “drama with living pictures”, 1891).
Withdrawn from the market Teletubbies character that contains toxic plasticizers 1998
The “Cabinet of Bad Taste” As early as 1899, Gustav Pazaurek, writing in Kunstwart, recommended that every museum of arts and crafts should add a “torture chamber” to present negative examples for the edification of those with a “thick aesthetic skin”: “Such a chamber of horrors, which could be collected and continuously renewed at very modest cost, must certainly act as a drastic cure with many salutary effects. [...] We may hope that some larger institution will soon move to put this theory of deterrence into practice.” In 1909, Pazaurek himself carried out his idea in the Stuttgart crafts museum, establishing a “Cabinet of Bad Taste”. The collection was on display, and new pieces were continually added, until the early 1930s. Over 24 years, Pazaurek collected more than 900 objects for it. In 1933, against Pazaurek’s will, the collection was removed from the permanent exhibition for lack of space and placed in storage. Some 700 objects are still conserved.
Aziza AhmadŠ 2014