The Genealogy of the Supermarket. Nina Katchadourian. Framed photographs and wood on wallpapered wall, 144 x 360 inches, 2005-ongoing
Back when I lived in Austin, the Blanton had a Nina Katchadourian retrospective, and I was just absolutely blown away by her work- it all had this great sense of playfulness, but also a real edge to it. The piece I admired most was this “family tree” of commercial food mascots. By extending this idea of Mascots to such an absurdist place, she also forces us to sit in the choices made when creating these characters, such as giving them specific ethnicities. Even now, as we have wrestled with this more publicly, we have rarely paused to ask the why here... and not why in the sense that there could be a good reason (cuz obviously nope), or even in the sense that intention should have any bearing on whether it’s offensive, but just interrogating what is actually being communicated.*