CULTURAL STUDIES: The History of Kitsch and the Cult of Ed hardy

The intersection of Japanese and American culture began in 1854 with the visit of Commodore Perry during the Convention of Kanagawa. Since that visit western artists have adopted many Japanese elements such as the ukiyo-e style prominent in a lot of traditional Japanese art. Since then Japanese culture has continued to influence American culture, from Vincent Van Gogh to Don Ed Hardy.

Ed Hardy began incorporating Japanese elements into his tattoo work in 1973 when he was invited to study tattooing in Japan by Sailor Jerry Collins. It took just over 30 years before Hardy was approached by the prominent French fashion designer Christian Audigier, who would transform his artwork into Western phenomenon that has blown up bigger than he could ever imagine.

Audigier took a traditional form of art and commodified it to a point where it has become the ultimate kitsch wear, popularized by high profile celebrities and absorbed by the "douchebag" culture, who once wore Audigier's Von Dutch brand in the 1990s. For those not knowledgeable of art history, Kitsch is a style of art recognized by the Germans as a "tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation" (wiki). Kitsch is often associated with capitalism and totalitarianism, seen as "a type of 'false consciousness,' a Marxist term meaning a mindset present within the structures of capitalism that is misguided as to its own desires and wants" (wiki). Jeff Koons recognized this obsession of Kitsch by the American public and in the late 1980s began producing porcelain statues that sold for millions, such as his statue of Michael Jackson and Bubbles which sold for $5.6 million.



How Audieger's Ed Hardy line got absorbed into primarily "douchebag" sub-cultures and Italian ethnic groups is an ongoing discourse. Most of these individuals have become part of the capitalist flux into a tasteless culture, a common result of a totalitarian environment run by big corporation. The public perception of Ed Hardy wearers is often a bitter, cruel and envious one. On one side we hate the lack of taste that these individuals have, yet on the other we are aware of the dedication they must have to spend $154.00 on a shirt. Regardless, I know for a fact that Audieger has the same grin on his face that Koons has every time he sells a sculpture for $5 million†