Pop culture art of Brandon Bird
The works of Californian artist Brandon Bird have popped up frequently on my Internet radar of, to borrow the elliptical styling of Carles of Hipster Runoff, “what people are talking about” and “looks cool.” Bird has received sub-mainstream attention in particular for his Law and Order coloring book and a group art exhibition celebrating its release. Bird specializes in adapting icons of pop culture and placing them in absurd situations such as Spider-Man and J.Jonah Jameson in a pillow fight, Christopher Walken cheerfully at work in his woodshop or Laura Linney as a Robotech mech aka L.I.N.N.E.Y. (Line-In Neural Network Enhancement Yoke).
The humor and wild absurdity of Bird’s works only underscores and mirrors the contrived nature of pop culture. Indeed, nothing is more contrived than, for example the situational comedy of sitcoms (The One with Ross at Water Aerobics) or summer popcorn flicks (Cue movie trailer voiceover: “Imagine a world. A world where one man named Sylvester Stallone has SQUID ATTACK ARMS!”).
Anyway, here’s your art assignment: Print out the above picture of Henry Rollins, then draw tattoos on him, and send a copy of your work to Brandon Bird.
