#brad troemel

[processes]

brad troemel on IG

[americanalstreet]

Brad Troemel, loop, 2023

[the1975attheirverybest]

Brad Troemel, "Art," and S...ATVB

As promised, this is the post about Brad Troemel, his work, his connection to Matty, and what this might mean for "Still....At Their Very Best." Research sources, images of the art described, etc will all be included at the end of this post.

Who is Brad Troemel?

He's a NYC based artist in his mid-thirties who makes "post-internet art." He actually got his start RIGHT HERE on this very platform, Tumblr, in 2009.

What is "Post-internet Art"?

post-internet art is art that is made either using the internet or in association with the internet. The idea of it usually comments on or critiques i the effect of internet use on our culture, aesthetics etc.

For example, this statue of Rihanna. Or this conceptual art performance "ART WHORE"

I should point out that according to the scholarship I look at, not all experts agree that this kind of thing counts as "Art."

What kind of art does Brad Troemel make?

Troemel considers his work to be challenging the traditions of art galleries and exhibitions and thinking about how art objects can exist outside these spaces. Like, in normal, everyday life.

For example, he's made a bench out of old Apple computers (see image below) and the MacBook pic that later became a meme (see below).

He started this in 2009 posting photoshopped images on Tumblr. Later, he went on to open an Etsy store which would mail customers the materials and instructions needed to make the art themselves.

In some cases, he deliberately made art pieces that don't last (fall apart, dissolve, or disappear shortly after they are made).

He's quoted as saying that's work is both rejecting traditional rules and trying to imagine what art might look like if those rules didn’t exist. “You can’t make this with a straight face.You’d have to be a real lunatic to do that."

Some of you might recognize a meme he made during election campaigns that was mistaken for a legit ad for Joe Biden (see below). Troemel eventually had to take it down because he was accused of false advertising/ spreading misinformation/ fake news. which....ironically is his whole point about internet culture, lol.

Today, he does a weekly series of cultural commentary posts on instagram.

What does this have to do with The 1975?

Matty announced on instagram that Troemel has co-written and will be co-directing the "Still....At Their Very Best" show.

How do Matty and Troemel know each other?

Matty's been a fan of his for a while and has liked his posts online, followed him on social media, etc.

On the Ion Pack Podcast, Matty spoke about Troemel's work, describing him as "someone who has strong cultural awareness and someone who gets art from the inside and from the outside. Gets it as an artist and as a consumer of art" and someone who "lit the fire and [Matty's] ass. and that he's been using Brad Troemel's language in interviews. the guy is fuckin' goated."

What does this mean for The 1975 and the "S...ATVB" tour?

WELLL...its not entirely clear yet BUT

Matty's current highlight reel titled "SHOW," has posts that are written as if Brad Troemel made them, not Matty. Hint at what the show is gonna be like?

We know that Troemel's style lines up with, and expands on, Matty's. They both present ideas, ask questions that challenge the status quo, and love irony. So, there's likely to be a lot dramatic irony and cultural criticism within the show

Of what? The posts Matty's made so far have been commenting on cultural constructs of masculinity, so, perhaps a continuation of what he started with ATVB?

What's it gonna look like? idk, but Matty's been really leaning into the TRUMAN BLACK/ MATTY HEALY dichotomy. With the lab coat and name tag onstage and in ATPOAIM, with changing his name to "TRUMAN BLACK" on instagram, etc.

Is he going to dramatize that and "play" both characters? himself AND Truman Black? what about the absurdity that they're BOTH him!

[ will update this as we continue to receive hints about the show.]

Referenced images

Consulted Sources:

New Yorker Article about Troemel: Art Troll

Artspace Bio

Post-Internet Art

[abiiors]

well then 😭😭

[applesfallingfromblondehair]

Not to alarm you (and not sure if you have already seen) but Brad Troemel (look him up he is known for his work with performance art and generally being a troll - and also has produced commentary on “parasocialism”) is working with Matty to write and create the upcoming SATVB tour. He has recently been interacting with fans in the 1975 subreddit asking them for lore and info regarding the band/members. He has started creating a sort of drawing with a lot of references and inside jokes within the fandom.

The reason I am telling you this is because someone mentioned Ao3 and he responded to the comment asking “what types of fan fics were people writing?”. Mostly everything he has commented back to fans on within the thread he has incorporated into the picture so far… so it’s not looking good for fanfiction authors/readers 🫠🥴😂

On top of that, I have a looming feeling that fans are feeding into the ideas surrounding parasocial behaviour exactly as he and Matty have planned/hypothesised - as fans are basically divulging all this info about matty and the band when in reality the constructed images we have of the band members are exactly that - constructed… as we don’t actually know them. Although, fans should be allowed to enjoy and engage in the lore surrounding the band itself, when the line between art and artist becomes blurred (as it definitely has with matty being matty) things become more complicated. I am inclined to believe that Matty hates the responsibility of being a perfect, intellectual, liberal activist which many fans of artists (swifties are an obvious example) now uphold them to. I feel like that is why he purposefully pushes that label away from himself by openly acting in a way that may be controversial. Despite this, I do believe that matty feeds into this behaviour and it looks like he is going to explore it with the upcoming show which should be interesting 👀

God don't I love when something addressed to me starts with "not to alarm you".

This isn't against you in any way but dear god this gets a massive air wank gesture from me. I am marginally aware of what's going on on Reddit and can I just say I don't care? Like I don't. Care.

I don't write fanfiction for them specifically, I write it for myself and for whoever else happens to stumble upon it and is curious enough to actually click on it. If that's Brad fucking Troemel and The King Idiot himself, how is that my problem exactly. I am not shoving it down their throats, they are going looking for it. Matty won't be the first nor the last celebrity to find fanfiction about himself on the internet. This isn't on me, it's on him.

That being said, if he decides that he wants to incorporate anything Ross-related from the stories he does find online, I'm sure no-one will be opposed?

God I so wish this was a normal band with a normal frontman who does normal gigs, sometimes. Fuck me.

[kontextmaschine]

Brad Troemel

[kodutoo]

Brad Troemel's interactive contemporary artwork on Instagram @ MainCharactersAndEvents. A satire of fake news and conspiracy theories, while basically being fake news and a conspiracy theory. And typical to a conspiracy theory, it's debunked with a google search. It's utterly cursed and utterly fascinating. Basically nothing but a gallery of doctored screenshots, and yet reading it, you get drawn into an alternate universe where Pete Buttiegeg has come out as straight, KAWS has come out as a cop bootlicker, and subsequently died in a shooting in Hunter Biden's art gallery. There's a storyline to the whole mess and it reads like something that could have happened, and you get too drawn in and you go "wait, is KAWSplay a thing?" and you google it and get no results, and realise you were fooled and that this is how conspiracy theories spread. What the fuck. I love art.

[art-quotes]

Brad Troemel’s quote

-Brad Troemel ✒ “The Accidental Audience” March 14, 2013