REALFAKE: Introduction

“…people don’t believe there is a difference between real and fake anymore. Bernard Arnault’s marketing plan had worked: consumers don’t buy luxury branded items for what they are. But for what they represent. And good fakes- the kind that can pass for real- now represent socially the same thing as real.”

Dana Thomas, “Deluxe” Penguin Press, New York 2007 pg 280

The marble statue of the Virgin Mary in Michelangelo’s Pieta inspired many aspects of the real fake project. The diaphanous material is organic, soft and transparent while also being hard, cold and permanent. Through the thoughtful rendering and careful manipulation of the forms, the marble is transcended. The “fabric,” here, is an example of instructive truth-telling, where the contours of the textile follow and drape the contours of the legs beneath it. However, the rendering of the material is so seamless and “honest” that the viewer does not consider that what is being revealed could be false.One might argue that media acts similarly to this piece of material, telling people what they want to know or what they want you to know. This project does not investigate media, itself, but looks at what is being mediated: news, pop culture, art, commercial products, history.