Installation view, Richard Bolton: The Bear in the Marketplace: Anticommunism and Patriotism in Recent American Advertising, MIT List Visual Arts Center, 1988.
Richard Bolton: The Bear in the Marketplace: Anticommunism and Patriotism in Recent American Advertising
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In Richard Bolton’s provocative mixed-media installation, The Bear in the Marketplace, actual print advertisements, television commercials, photographs, charts, and texts will be incorporated into an unconventional visual essay which analyzes the influence of international politics and attitudes on the rhetoric and imagery of advertising during the Reagan era.
Discussing the thesis of his project, Bolton explained: “If we are to understand the current state of democracy, we must look at how communication occurs (or doesn’t occur) in democratic nations. We must look particularly at advertising—the loudest voice in our lives. Anticommunism and patriotism have been used as a marketing device for everything from clothing to cigarettes, from hamburgers to batteries.”
