During the USA exhibition, GIG Munich will be posting short individual features on all participating artists. This is the first of the series:

I have always been drawn to American popular culture, specifically to the movies from the 70s, which I watched when growing up in the 80s. Looking back, I find the film Star Wars particularly relevant to my current practice.

The epic struggle between good and evil in Star Wars is a very prominent one and very American in its simplification of moral values. The “good guys” are clearly contrasted with the “bad guys”. This moral branding is a theme throughout the film, ominous music appearing when the Empire is on screen and changing into something lighter and more hopeful with the appearance of the Republic. Darth Vader represents darkness right down to his black uniform as opposed to Luke and Lea’s almost monastic white.

For this show, I wanted to create a Darth Vader logo. Against a plain red background, I coupled the image of his helmet with some flowers, a hippie gesture, which belongs to the troubled American civil rights movement originating in the 60s, but already on the wane by the time the Star Wars films were being made.

MTT 2013