Poster Mashup

This is my submitted entry for the IDES1122 poster mashup assignment. I credit, as a key  influence for this work, the UK based street artist "Banksy", whose street art pieces are, I find, highly satirical in their presentation. It was from a more satirical standpoint that I tried to approach this project so that I would end up with an image that was perhaps a little deeper than just a new product in an old picture.

The evocative original painting is by 19th Century Australian artist Frederick McCubbin and is titled "Down on his luck", over-layed  subtly with the logo wrapper of a Nestle Milo tin onto the swagmans cooking pot / billy and in the background a sign signifying this desolate nondescript parcel of the Australian landscape is not to be used for overnight camping. Seeming only to be placed as deterrent for displaced peoples such as himself. The homeless man down on his luck seems to be staring vacantly, full of broken thoughts, at the empty can and fire infront of him. The use of a milo can seemed to me to be more poignant than just as a piece of twentieth century design for a few reasons. 

1. Milo is an Australian icon, as were swagmen but represent ideas dealing with life in this country that could not be further apart or more disparate in the Australian psyche (Energy drinks associated with sporting activities and The homeless). 

2. The size of the can indicates this was a family sized product and perhaps this reminds the man of a lost or troubling past, in which he may have once felt more promise with a family or better tidings and which are now gone, lost to the world. 

3. The unpredictable nature of the way things get used, re-used or disposed of, once they have served their purpose. (how many uses for an empty Milo can? storage container full of nuts & bolts in sheds all around the country, play-things for kids, as a cooking pot in this case etc.)

The sign, I feel, plays to Australia's current populist attitudes towards the unfortunate and downtrodden. I considered adjusting the sign to read F#@K OFF WE'RE FULL to really drive home the stupidity of the attitudes of a large percentage of the miserable, arrogant, overly nationalistic voices that are so loud at times in this country, in the end though I thought this would detract from the subtlety of the piece and I thought best to leave the sign as a simple piece of bureaucratic nonsense typical of Australia. 

Whew, got to the end of that ramble...! 'til next time. Jes