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1 AUDIENCE
Thomas Kinkade and Rirkrit Titavanija could not be any more different. In terms of pleasing the general populous, the winner is most certainly Kinkade. His paintings and, maybe more importantly, his empire look and feel the way his audience want them to look and feel. They’re the kind of artwork you see in a hospital, office building, or possibly even your grandma’s house. In my research I looked at the progression of his work over the years. His fame stems primarily from the angelic country cottage scenes and idealistic landscapes he has painted for years, but it appears that his recent work has taken a frustrating turn. In my opinion, he relies too heavily on gimmicks and popular interest (like The Lion King painting for example) to be considered a serious contemporary artist. His work and overall success are a result of a “supply and demand” artistic process. Understanding your audience doesn’t necessarily mean giving them exactly what they want. He supplies his customers with formulated, calculated pieces of art, and that doesn’t leave much room for creativity.
I believe Titavanija provides his audience with the things they don’t consciously know they want. His work showcases things like generosity and hospitality that appeal to a broad range of people yet still maintains a creative logistic that presents the information in a much more thought provoking way. He doesn’t shoot for “pretty” aesthetics, but I think the experiences his artwork provides his viewers with his beautiful in that it leaves an impression. In his 2004 work titled The Land, Titavanija created a self-sustaining environment in Thailand reserved for growing rice, congregating, living, and building that is completely open to the public. No one owns the land, so anyone can build, work, and play on it as long as every part of it remains accessible to everyone. The work functions similarly to Free in that the art develops as the people interact with it and behave within it. In this respect Titavanija creates an audience that can view the work as well as enable the work and make it into something better. His pieces aren’t about the food or the land, they are about the people themselves. By creating work out of his audience, I think he far surpasses Kinkade on a level of understanding.
