John Goto's exhibition "Capital Arcade" is a fictional shopping mall juxtaposing the disparate value systems of Art and modern marketing in a series of pieces beginning and ending with the artist as the central figure. The narrative is a journey through the environment of our local mall.
At the same time as Warhol appeared to embrace the pop revolution of mass youth and its enthusiasms; Hockney was responding to this new environment from an altogether different perspective.
The ubiquity and drumming repetitiveness of advertising depicted in Warhol's work; the images having been transcribed from their original forms, are replaced in "Capital Arcade", with a primary use of the logo without manipulation.
In "Capital Arcade", it seems that forty years of the sight-bite has rendered the language of advertising incapable of disguise, or manipulation. It is so imbedded within our psyche that its message no longer needs conscious consideration, and its form only a part of the structure of modern aesthetics?
The discussion of the opposing values of Consumerism and High Art which was present in Hockney's different perspective on popular culture, was met with parody in "A Rake's Progress"; which was a series of prints derived from Hogarth.
Parody is the central construct of Goto's Art; as with Pop artist Martial Raysse' consumerized version of Ingres. The image of the avid consumers standing in line awaiting the opening of a B & Q sale, entitled "Unit 5", is the artists clearest use of parody.
One of many classical images to be discovered in Goto's final shop window of the work "unit 9" is Mantegna's "The Triumph of Caesar", the composition of which relates directly to the queueof Goto's characters, this work being the origin of his BE & QUEUE parody."If it is the artists job to speak of their times, then foolish times are best spoken of with humour."
With all of Goto's work in the series there is a common link that goes beyond parody, or the image of advertising homogenized with modern aesthetics, and talks of the emergence of a more disturbing trend.
The symbols of advertising have become iconic in power, directly replacing traditional religious iconography. The status of the mall is raised to that of a place of worship.
As with the composition of his characters in the work "Unit 3", an image of a Korean McDonald's is a parody of El Greco's "Christ Driving The Traders From The Temple".El Greco's figure of Christ banishing the fearful traders with a graceful and commanding gesture is transformed into the image of a young girl; her same gesture as an enticement to enter for instant nourishment.
The traders once banished, now have their own temple, where God has been replaced by icons of neon strip lighting and perspex; This is a transposition of values between the market place and the temple that we seem oblivious to.
Next we conclude our study of the artist's work
