The practice of taking objects from everyday life as material for visual art is now so widespread as to warrant no interest in and of itself. From Tracey Emin's bloodied knickers and overflowing ashtrays, as part of her installation My Bed (1998), to Subodh Gupta's sculptures of steel tiffin boxes, we can accept that the gap between art and life is now closed.
It follows that if anything can be art, the profound question is not an academic why, but how. How does, for example, Emin's bloodied underwear affect my worldview? That is, bloodied knickers as art.
The artist Daniel Arango recently arrived in Bangkok on a mission for a self-styled movement to which he has given the title "Holy K". A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Arango creates customised versions of the Kellogg's Special K cereal box. They are beautifully realised art objects and the artist has been moving from country to country to gather followers for his intriguing project.
What prompted your interest in the image of a cereal box?
I was raised a strict Catholic and have an interest in religious artworks. Kellogg began through the Seventh Day Adventist Church in the 19th century, who were vegan, and originally marketed Special K as a spiritual wholefood. As we know, Kellogg is now a multi-national company driven by concerns far removed from their noble origin. They can be understood as a symbol of how money corrupts and how consumerism destroys religious belief.
Many artists draw on the cultural interest of disposable objects. How do you understand your project within the context of contemporary art?
Yes, disposable objects or consumer goods are of an interest to me. I am fascinated by cereal boxes because they represent contemporary obsessions with diet, and therefore appearance.
My work is contemporary because of the tools I use to create it: MacBook Pro and AutoCAD. And I use these tools unconventionally. My Holy K movement merges contemporary technology with more traditional understandings, that is, the personal engagement I experience with people.
Many artists never meet their collectors. But here I am walking the world, like a missionary, spreading the word of Holy K, not Christ. And, by doing so, I am selling a Holy K cereal box to a consumerist world.
I feel that great contemporary art questions norms and is disruptive.
Tell me about the practical origins of the Holy K movement.
When I lived in New York City I began by replicating Special K boxes as Holy K and secretly leaving them on supermarket shelves. My boxes were white and contained my own organic cereal. People could buy them because they had a barcode and eventually news of my project spread around. Once people began approaching me directly to buy Holy K, I decided to invent a movement and those who commission boxes become my disciples. The boxes then became portraits of the buyers.
You then began travelling the world, like the Kellogg brand ...
I began in Norway because I needed to deliver a painting of mine to a collector and he decided to purchase a Holy K box also. As I was in Europe I decided to visit Moscow because of all the religious architecture. Once I sold a box there I travelled to Melbourne, and now Bangkok.
What determines your choice of city?
I allow faith to navigate my path; faith and coincidence. In Melbourne I began to think I needed a city that provides greater visual stimulation and then I saw a drag show performing the song One Night in Bangkok. But the city I choose is less important than the quality of interaction I achieve with people I meet. Contemporary art can be so streamlined. Personal interaction is important.
What attracts people to buy Holy K artwork?
The box is sexy. And many people can relate to the original Special K product as an artefact from their everyday lives. But I personalise this artefact to function as a portrait of an individual, a portrait that is not merely a painting on a wall. Also, again, interaction is important and those who commission a Holy K box become disciples of mine through a special baptismal ritual.
For more sustenance, visit www.holykmovement.com.
