Artist Kristin Simmons sits in front of her pop style cigarette screenprints, 'Bad Habits'.

BAD HABITS -

BAD HABITS -

Taking cues from the power of visual and verbal combinations, 'Bad Habits' is a series of pastel hand-pulled silkscreen prints combining the mutated language with its most obvious historical expression: the branding of the top six selling global cigarette labels (Marlboro, Camel, Parliament, Lucky Strike, Kent and American Spirit).

About

It is no surprise that manipulation, both visually and socially, is an ongoing condition in our culture. Advertisements and products targeted towards children seek to lay the groundwork for a lifetime of brand awareness and consumption. In fact, before the FTC banned the use of cartoons in cigarette packaging, studies showed that six-year-olds found Camel's cartoon mascot as recognizable as Disney's logo. Blurring the line between sickness and health, younger generations have also long taken language traditionally used to describe the bad or abnormal and have appropriated it to mean something desirable.

In this same vein of calling something "crazy" or "mental" to express awe, cigarette brands have a long tradition of turning the bad, or what should be labeled as "buyer beware," to good in advertising. Taking cues from the power of visual and verbal combinations, 'Bad Habits' is a series of pastel hand-pulled silkscreen prints combining the mutated language with its most obvious historical expression: the branding of the top six selling global cigarette labels (Marlboro, Camel, Parliament, Lucky Strike, Kent and American Spirit).

DIMENSIONS: 24(h) x 18(w) each
MEDIUM:
Original Hand-Pulled Silkscreen; Edition of 40, Signed and Numbered
YEAR:
2017