In 2003 a gallery in Los Angeles held an exhibition consisting entirely of corporate logos. Corporations paid to have their logo included in the show, titled appropriately “Sponsorship”. Only corporations who paid were included, and their level of participation in the show was linked to the dollar amount of their sponsorship. In addition to displaying their logos, corporations handed out free samples of their products to gallery visitors.
The gallery, Blk/Mrkt is part of the Blk/Mrkt – Visual Communication creative agency. Blk/Mrkt creates brand identities and strategies for companies targeting the urban youth market. Their mission is to create brand identity without triggering a backlash in the targeted market segment. Often they focus on “non-corporate” methods to achieve their clients’ aims.
Blk/Mrkt gallery is also the workspace of Shepard Fairey, self-proclaimed phenomenologist best known for his “Obey Giant” stickers and stencils. The show was conceived by skater-punk turned fractal artist Ryan McGinness, who runs a commercial design studio, Ego, in New York. Many patrons of the sponsorship show were clients of Ego and BlkMrkt.
Even though the relationship between exhibit and advertising was completely overt, the show was also an opportunity for the sponsors to establish their identity as counter-culture products. For companies seeking the elusive status of the unwittingly hip, the reductive force of parody and the subtext of self-mockery were subliminal advertising messages engineered to gain street cred.
http://www.slate.com/id/2079501/
a description of the exhibit
http://www.obeygiant.com/main_new.php?page=articles&article=6 article: “Absoloot Sponsorship” by Shepard Fairey provides his views on, and first-hand experience with corporate sponsorship..
http://www.blkmrkt.com/blkmrkt.html
Homepage with access to on-line images from their Gallery; the organization’s mission statement; and examples of the agency’s creative work for clients from Absolut and Heinken to the Black Eyed Peas and the US Olympic Snowboarding Team (Burton).
http://ryanmcginness.com/pdf/Lodown.pdf
an interview with Ryan McGinness tracing the origin of the Sponsorship show and the artist’s attitude toward corporate sponsorship
http://http://www.gingkopress.com/_cata/_arph/spon.htm
Catalogue for the Sponsorship show: a collection of essays from contemporary artists on the sponsorship relationship
http://www.subliminalprojects.com/
Fairey’s art gallery – the physical space previously occupied by Blk/Mrkt. The poster displaying the logos for “Sponsorship” can be seen under “past shows”.
Posted by Chip Van Dyk (Research Assistant, Business of Art project)