LOL Arts is the brainchild of Marianne Goldin with support from the folks at I Can Has Cheez Burger. Their goal is to bring to the world, art inspired by humour and the internet.
Curatorial Statement
The LOLcat art show started as a way to rediscover the fun in making art. It became the manifestation of a communal obsession.
This show is comprised of artists from around the world: professionals, students, and lovers of art. There are painters, draughtspeople, comic artists, sculptors, glass artists, media artists, musicians and conceptual artists. All these individuals responded to an open call for a very new kind of art show. Their work creates a visual vocabulary required for the concept of LOLcat art to exist.
The process for creating the show was in tune with its origins: it was entirely administered over the Internet. After an open call was posted on the Icanhascheezburger.com site, we narrowed our group down to 28 conceptually and technically impressive artists. Our balanced group representing various schools of thought, tackled the request:
“Make art around LOLcats”
One artist created a pen and ink drawing that speaks of a metaphysical connection between all living things: cats and cheezburgers and people. Another artfully reflected the concept of Dada readymade. Another draws comic strips of Laugh Out Loud Cats circa 1920s-1930s: the forbearers of the modern Internet Meme. Many played with heavy metaphors, such as the focus on absence rather than presence (eg: Invisible bicycle) and the omniscient “Ceiling Cat” (which can be interpreted as diety, cosmology, status quo, ideology, etc). Several explored the three dimensional world through sculptural works, and injected their own depth perception into a traditionally “flat” image. Some referenced classical works and techniques to create LOLcat renderings that are sometimes serious, sometimes sardonic.
I’m a huge fan of the absurdity of the Internet Meme. I discovered LOLcats in 2006 during a brainstorming session for The Cult of Youth Reader (a publication I edited). We were muddling over how youth create new ways of speaking, when Julia Gfroerer, an arts editor, mentioned wacky Internet cats funnier than they ought to be. She described the gestalt of LOLcats and how they had created a new form of linguistic humor.
Jump ahead two years to the Friends of the Nib artist salon in Seattle. In an attempt to rediscover my passion for drawing-for-drawing’s sake, I turn to LOLcats. Since art takes any form, I wanted to make the form as fun as possible. At first, the attempt is small and humble: I create three works for a benefit of a local no-kill cat shelter. The works garner a giggle and some interesting conversations. A couple months later, I mount a solo show of LOLcat drawings in Vancouver Canada. All the meanwhile, I’m chatting with the good folks from Icanhascheezburger.com, and well, they think their cats are pretty great muses as well. Thus, the LOLarts are born.
LOLcats are the mascots of those who must spend hours in front of the monitor.
LOLcats are both democratic and exclusive icons.
Democratic, because we can all make a LOL (just go to www.icanhascheezburger.com) –it is one of the most instantaneously gratifying ways to be creative on the internet.
LOLcats are exclusive because they are often most available to those that are computer and web-conscious, and wired for a good deal of the day. It takes a certain cultural/technological currency to be “on top of” Internet Memes. As an experiment, ask the next 3 people you see if they know what a LOLcat is, and then try to explain it to them. Talk to folks outside your circle of friends –your coworkers, for example. Try to find the essence in LOLcat that speaks to you, and communicate it to your audience. Note where you lose the words to describe the paradox of LOL.
One of the attempts of this show is to make LOLcats more inclusive by bringing them into the “real world” by means of art. However, we are also trying to bring art into the “real world” by way of the humor of LOLcats. Both goals are achieved.
LOLcats are love to many people because they genuinely make them happy. Ask me why I draw LOlcats and I’ll tell you it is because they make me happy. Ask anyone that applied for the show and they will beam to you about the special moment in their day when they peek at their favorite cats.
-Marianne L. Goldin
Full Bio for Marianne Goldin:
Marianne L. Goldin is a Seattle-based visual artist working in a broad range of applications ranging from traditional illustration to silk screened poster art, book arts, and conceptual works on paper.
Marianne exhibits a wide range of sublime to profane in her work, as can be witnessed by her very rock n’ roll output for musicians contrasted with her technically-complex ink and watercolor renderings. Originally from Kiev, Ukraine, she channels that region’s émigré art idiosyncrasies. Her aim is to reproduce the tactile effect of printmaking with simple pen and paint.
She has done illustration for clients such as Poetry Foundation, The Stranger, Seattle Magazine and Northwest Film Forum. She has licensed work to Mastercard and the Altria Group. Marianne has been active in printmaking at Cornish College of Art, Sev Shoon, and Windowpane Press and has shown work in New York (Clarabella), Seattle (Henry Art Gallery, CoCA, Gallery 1412), Portland (Disjecta) and Vancouver, Canada (Clack Clack Empire). She has been reviewed in The Stranger, Seattle P-I, Seattle Weekly, Vancouver 24Hours, Lost at E Minor, Que Vois Je, and has had conceptual work featured in a book by James McManus. She was the editor and founder of The Cult of Youth Reader.
Marianne teaches illustration and silk screening in Seattle (GAGE Academy and The Vera Project).
Her current work re-interprets internet memes into ethereal pen and ink drawings. She also enjoys doing weekly devotional drawings of vegetables. She is also seeding a dance production for 2009, which will merge her visual works with choreography and digital art elements.
More about I Can Has Cheez Burger:
With more than 3.3 million page views a day, and 5 million unique users each month, ICHC empowers people across the web to engage in creating and sharing user-generated content that delights and entertains a diverse audience.
• For users, we offer a service for the creation and sharing of hilarious content that provides a much-needed respite from everyday life.
• For advertisers, we deliver highly engaged and happy users.
• For syndication partners, we offer emotionally compelling, original content created and selected by our
All show proceeds will be donated to Partners in Reading.
Partners in Reading (PAR) enables English-speaking adults and their families to improve their basic literacy skills so they can achieve their goals and function more effectively at home, in the community, at work and as lifelong learners. For a description of PAR program read About PAR.
Credits
- Executive Direction: Ben Huh, (Icanhascheezburger.com)
- Production Support: Emily Huh, (Icanhascheezburger.com)
- Curator: Marianne L. Goldin (mariannegoldin.com)
- Artistic Direction: Kristen Curtis (Wexley School for Girls)
- Public Relations: Julia French (Covered Communications)
- Event/Auction Planning: Julia French (Covered Communications)
- Artist Relations: Julia French (Covered Communications) and Marianne Goldin (mariannegoldin.com)
- Web Development: Frank de Jong (Covered Communications)
- Gallery: COFFEEBAR, San Francisco
- Charity: Partners in Reading, San Jose
Thank You:
- The Huhs - for their enduring support
- All the artists that applied
- All the artists that participated
- All the artists that donated work to the charity auction
- All the LOLcats
- Jason T. Miles - for his support and conceptual muscle
- Friends of the Nib Art Salon - for seeding the concept of LOLart
- Vincent Parker and Erin Edwards (Clack Clack Empire) - for hosting the inaugural LOLcat art show
