Pop Up Book

10/03/2018

Kitsch and sentimentality in literature

Kitsch is not only a visual phenomenon – it can be written too. Kitsch is omnipresent in love poems, love stories and trashy novels.  In this mixed media creation I tried to visualise written kitsch and sentimentality, using water colour illustration, fabrics, dried flowers and other materials.

I folded some of the pages into the centre of the book to create a fan.  Little illustrations and figurines stick in between the bows. Most of the illustrations are made on or out off the pages to show that these characters, images or keywords have their origin in the written word.

“We all wish for our own happy ending.”

I used different textures to demonstrate the manifoldness of feelings love stories can provoke. Love can feel warm, cosy or sensual and over the top like the red velvet. It can feel cold like a shiny metal surface that only reflects a feeling. The dried flowers symbolise how delicate and fragile, yet romantic love can be. The golden page presents the majestic aspect of love, its greatness. The stars and the cosmos present the eternal character of love. Tweeting birds, little children playing, the young couple that finally gets together, the happy end – all things that make us feel moved, that make us sentimental and whish for our own happy ending.

 

yvonnejohn
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