We need to talk about your kitsch problem... - General Tiki

E EnchantedTikiGoth Member Calgary, Canada Joined: Dec 31, 2003 Posts: 355	E EnchantedTikiGoth Posted posted on Sun, Jul 30, 2017 10:06 PM On 2017-07-30 12:41, AceExplorer wrote: So I often wonder if we have any right to complain when someone today decorates with painted clown tikis, or with monsters in a tropical/tiki context, or with surf music. They seem to be doing the same thing --- escaping, and decorating, and celebrating life, innocently and playfully but in a "new" way. Seems dang close to the same thing that happened when tiki originaly was developing. I think you're conflating two different concerns here. One is the inclusion of items that are not traditionally Tiki, the other is items produced at a significantly lower quality. On the former, I say different strokes for different folks... It would be kind of boring, frankly, if everyone stuck to a petrified set of identical, approved tropes and fixtures. Some like it very traditional to the mid-century Tiki experience, others want to throw in some Rockabilly or Surf, others want to throw in mid-century style monster kitsch, others pirates. That's fine. My own interests right now are towards a "fantasy Tiki" that unapologetically includes Disney and mermaids and monsters and such things, and towards a "pri-Tiki" ranging from Victorian to Thirties "Golden Age" of travel and Hollywood aesthetics (basically pre-WWII). On the latter... well... we're talking about what looks good and what does not look good. It's not a subject we necessarily have the power to affect, since it's not like Party City is going anywhere and we can't forcibly stop anyone from shopping there, but we do have the liberty to make artistic judgments. We can say if something looks like crap, regardless of whether or not it's "authentic" Tiki. We can appreciate that people are having fun, and still point out that there's better looking stuff out there to have fun with.

On 2017-07-30 12:41, AceExplorer wrote:
So I often wonder if we have any right to complain when someone today decorates with painted clown tikis, or with monsters in a tropical/tiki context, or with surf music. They seem to be doing the same thing --- escaping, and decorating, and celebrating life, innocently and playfully but in a "new" way. Seems dang close to the same thing that happened when tiki originaly was developing.

I think you're conflating two different concerns here. One is the inclusion of items that are not traditionally Tiki, the other is items produced at a significantly lower quality.

On the former, I say different strokes for different folks... It would be kind of boring, frankly, if everyone stuck to a petrified set of identical, approved tropes and fixtures. Some like it very traditional to the mid-century Tiki experience, others want to throw in some Rockabilly or Surf, others want to throw in mid-century style monster kitsch, others pirates. That's fine. My own interests right now are towards a "fantasy Tiki" that unapologetically includes Disney and mermaids and monsters and such things, and towards a "pri-Tiki" ranging from Victorian to Thirties "Golden Age" of travel and Hollywood aesthetics (basically pre-WWII).

On the latter... well... we're talking about what looks good and what does not look good. It's not a subject we necessarily have the power to affect, since it's not like Party City is going anywhere and we can't forcibly stop anyone from shopping there, but we do have the liberty to make artistic judgments. We can say if something looks like crap, regardless of whether or not it's "authentic" Tiki. We can appreciate that people are having fun, and still point out that there's better looking stuff out there to have fun with.

Post #778367 by EnchantedTikiGoth on Sun, Jul 30, 2017 10:06 PM