resolving not to hang a print of warhol’s brillo soap pads box on my office wall

Abstract

This jeremiad is a critique of commodity aesthetics advocating resistance to the hegemony of the brandscape. The persona laments a consciousness cluttered by, and grieves an imagination colonized by, brands. The poem hints at consumers’ patriotic inability to conceive of alternatives to capitalism, and the seductive deception that invites buyers to regard brands merely as products, rather than occasions of cultural occultation or occlusion. The poem explores the yin-yang nature of such brand dialectics as positive and negative relationships, sacred and profane attributes, and authentic and inauthentic experience. Iconic brands are paragons of this (sub)conscious enculturation process of artful perception.