(Disclaimer: This study was written and published before the terrible Chris Chan revelations of July 30, 2021.)A CRITICAL CONFRONTATION. What can we learn from comparing the two most unique cultural figures in living memory?
Warhol and Chris Chan: Both became famous while producing artwork that was often met with derision. Both became the focus of intense interest and curiosity. Their indelible personalities provoked fascination, laughter, and--at times--horror. In spite of their strangeness--or because of it--they reflect particularly pertinent aspects of the world around them. They are thought of as the oddest of oddities, and yet they represent the course of our society as a whole.
From bright Pop Art to sordid underground films, Andy Warhol portrayed an America that was both familiar and avant-garde. He carried a tape recorder everywhere and prophesized that in the future everyone would be famous just for being themselves. Several decades later, Chris Chan embodies Warhol's dream as it has turned nightmarish. Thanks to the internet Chris has become known worldwide, is constantly documented, observed, scrutinized, and made the subject of mass debate and media analysis.
Warhol worked to legitimize popular culture and give it the prestige of high art. But more recent generations have grown up breathing pop culture as if it were air. "Young at heart", people continue playing video games and collecting toys into adulthood, and favorite entertainment franchises are treated akin to religions. More than anyone else, Chris Chan emblematizes the excesses of this era.
This comprehensive study investigates the parallels and divergences between Warhol and Chris Chan, both of whom can be seen as bellwethers of cultural shifts. The two are compared in terms of how they relate to the following elements--from the fundamentals of life to the themes of our age:
● Names & Words
● Collecting & Hoarding
● Consumerism
● Technology & Media
● Women . . . Sex . Transgenderism . . Femdom
● Fame: Mythologies of Self & Multiverse
● Recording
A wide spectrum of knowledge is painstakingly drawn upon to analyze our two subjects from all angles. References and points of comparison are made to elements of:
● Art history
● Classic film
● Modernist literature
● Philosophy (from Plato to the postmodern)
● Popular music
● Psychology (especially psychoanalysis)
● Internet meme culture
Through pathos and ridiculousness, in an uncertain world that's constantly changing, we trace the human spirit as it passes from the golden age of Americana... through the high Warholian era... and now into social media squalor.
(NOTES: 1. Chris Chan's pronouns are indeed respected throughout this study. 2. Though the author takes a critical and often negative view of Chris Chan, Chris Chan approved of the book after it was published. 3. Chris Chan is in no way financially connected to this project.)
