I chose the work Hermés Value Meal by artist Tom Sachs. He used prints and materials from designer brand Hermés to sculpt a fast food meal on a tray. To Sachs, like everyone else, the fast food meal likely just exemplifies a cheap (but probably tasty) meal, possibly commenting on the accessibility to food some parts of the urban United States only has. Words I would use to describe the material used to make up the object are luxury, branded, high living, materialistic, and possessive. The material used to make up the object isn’t actually taken from Hermés products but a paper used by the brand with obvious branding and a consistent color scheme.
To me, the combination of object and material creates a contrast between luxury and frugality with commentary on mass consumerism. There is a saying when it comes to this style of commentary that goes “it takes a whole cow to make a handbag while meat from a single cow can make a thousand burgers.” This doesn’t necessarily defend either one, as producing either uses unethical processes, so I think that the combination of these 2 industries while playing into the luxury vs. frugality idea is very important today.
Peder Harvey Design 