Imp Kerr

Imp Kerr (born June 6, 1980, Uppsala, Sweden) is a Swedish-French artist living in New York City, mostly known for her fake American Apparel advertisement campaign. She is The New Inquiry's creative director,[1][2][3] and runs the blog The New Shelton Wet/Dry.

Early life and education

Kerr spent her childhood and teenage years in Paris, France. She moved to New York in 1999, where she graduated from NYU with a degree in magazine journalism and a minor in philosophy. Kerr has a sister, Rosa, who is three years older than she is.

Some bits of Kerr's life were documented on her blog “stereohell”, but most of the content was taken off at the end of 2009. The same content was then reposted, in a fragmented and augmented version, on “shines like gold,“ an experimental blog[4] she runs for The New Inquiry.

Fake American Apparel ads

In 2007, Kerr started a fake American Apparel ad campaign in New York, which was covered on several blogs.

"For the uninitiated, over the past few months, a NYC prankster has created several bawdy two-color parodies of AA ads complete with real ad headlines." [5]

"The notorious, mysterious, and sexy American Apparel ad spoofer raises so many philosophical questions: What is art? What is advertising? What is porn? [...] The anonymous American Apparel ad remixer has consistently shown a marked devotion to actual "art." We're not dealing with just another vandal here. I don't think it's exaggerating the case to call this fake postermaker an educator." [6]

On September 9, 2008, a video posted on Stereohell.com revealed that the fake ads plastered throughout the city were Photoshop mockups, something nobody had suspected for one year.[7] Never before in the short history of street/guerrilla marketing has a project played so effectively with dissimulation, and for so long.

In a final twist, American Apparel ran a tribute ad on the back cover of Vice magazine (November, 2008), showing a compilation of the fake ads.[8]

Wall Street Casino

In December, 2008, Imp Kerr created a set of architectural drawings portraying investment banks as Las Vegas casinos.[9]

"Using the same two-color technique as the fake AA ads, the artist has playfully reimagined many of The Strip’s iconic signs. As an added element, the designs have been created on top of famous pop art. Imp from Stereo Hell explains: “The banks didn’t “invest” but gambled. Plus, they showed off. Everything looked under control and glamorous, like under the Las Vegas glittering neon…” Artwork was used as backgrounds because “that’s what art became under the flood of Wall Street money…ultra expensive, ultra-meaningless background.” [10]

Imp Kerr's vision was confirmed by the New York Times, in an editorial titled "Wall Street Casino," published on April 28, 2010: "Banks like Goldman turned the financial system into a casino. Like gambling, the transactions mostly just shifted money around." [11]

The drawings were shown in the group exhibition Spacer:One at the Tribeca Grand in New York (2010) [12] and featured in n+1 Occupy #4, April 2012 [13]

References

  1. ↑ "Interview With Imp Kerr of The New Inquiry And The New Shelton Wet/Dry". The Huffington Post. March 1, 2012. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Los Angeles Review of Books, 2012". February 7, 2012. Archived from the original on August 6, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
  3. ↑ "13 What We're Reading: Summer Edition, Volume II". The New Yorker. July 5, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  4. ↑ "Shines Like Gold". The New Inquiry. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  5. ↑ Dildo Holding Sex Toy, Animal New York, May 20, 2008 Animalnewyork.com, May 20, 2008
  6. ↑ "American Apparel Ad Spoofer Becomes An Art Critic, Gawker.com, August 13, 2008". Gawker. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  7. ↑ "Fake American Apparel Ad Posters All Photoshopped, Animalnewyork.com, September 9, 2008". ANIMAL. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  8. ↑ "American Apparel Successfully Swallows Its Ad Spoofer, Gawker.com, December 4, 2008". Gawker. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  9. ↑ ""Las Vegas banks" on stereohell.com". Stereohell.com. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  10. ↑ Stereo Hell Moves the Street to the Strip, Copyranter, Animal New York, December 16, 2008 Animalnewyork.com
  11. ↑ Wall Street Casino, New York Times, April 27, 2010 NYTimes.com
  12. ↑ "Spacer:One exhibition at The Tribeca Grand, June 2010". Themusic.fm. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  13. ↑ n+1 Occupy #4, April 2012 (PDF)
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