MFA Project: For the Love of Kitsch

Kitsch is quite often produced to be a tacky and overdone aesthetic without imitating anything of artistic substance. What I wanted to achieve during my MFA was to show that kitsch design could be created and retain artistic integrity.

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I have always been drawn to kitsch and the humour it holds. Throughout my MFA project my main aim was to use kitsch in a knowingly conscious way and I could challenge the negative connotations by creating sophisticated and desirable objects and textiles to own.

My focus was on translating my drawings onto glass vessels by developing a type of graal technique with decals. Kitsch is often associated with materials such as tacky plastic fakery and mass-produced laminates, by creating kitsch as one off bespoke pieces with an unexpected  expensive material it would be a contradiction.

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Photography by Beth Chalmers