Everything Right With ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ Love’
A 70s lava lamp. An A1 pop art print of Marilyn Monroe. Princess Diana memorabilia. A transparent inflatable lounge chair. Retro geometric wallpaper. Three flying ceramic wall ducks. What do all of these things have in common? If you were to say they’re all tasteless ways to decorate the home, you could be both right and wrong - but the word we’re looking for here is ‘Kitsch’. Kitsch (derogatory) describes a kind of gaudy style of eyesore interiors decorated with a disharmony of common decor pieces; kitsch (complementary) is everything of the former, but takes it on knowingly and with a sense of pride. The kitsch style has been around for a while, and it’s certainly here to stay.
Somewhere in a 19th century art market in Munich, ‘kitsch’ was first used to describe it’s cheap and marketable art. It was familiar, accessible, particularly sentimental, and the kind of thing that new wave modernists loathed. With new art movements of the 20th century on the rise, the escapist fantasy of styles like baroque and art nouveau was out. To create something truly avant garde was to challenge the fanciful and over consumed style of the past, something which set modernism on its path to become the ultimate buzzkill of the twentieth century. Buzzkill-in-chief Clement Greenberg brought up kitsch in his essay ‘the Avant-Garde and Kitsch’ to critique ‘popular, commercial art’ such as ‘comics, Tin Pan Alley music, tap dancing, Hollywood movies’. Greenberg would be horrified if he were to watch the WAP music video, Riverdale or practically any Marvel movie. Despite his very valid plea for more meaningful art his use of ‘kitsch’ (derogatory) fails to consider how much we really need these common comforts. When preemptive kitsch made its debut in the home, the deliberate use of objectively outdated styles offered a refreshing means of self expression. The subgenre ‘Kitsch lumpen’, began mainly as a way for those living in poverty to have access to interior design in the first place. Those who dreamt of designer armchairs and expensive art prints instead had to improvise with phone booths, graffiti, and road signs, (anyone who’s lived in first year uni accommodation will be happy to know they’ve taken part in a radical style movement.) Facing hardship, with nothing but hand-me-down furniture, some paint and a touch of kleptomania, people were able to modernise old home items to create a space that was truly their own. It was a radical way to challenge the extravagant decor of upper class home interiors and bring colour and style into the home with very few means. Poking fun at the aesthetics of the ultra wealthy proved to be so fun, that pseudo-luxury kitsch emerged as another subgenre. This was ironically a less accessible aesthetic taken on by designers. Through consistency and perfect disharmony, eccentric decor was able to exist without boundaries- and without judgement (see also: designer kitsch and pseudosperic kitsch). An antique chandelier in an 18th century country house means money, but a chandelier light fixture bought from Homebase is tacky; an Andy Warhol original is to be marvelled at, but a pop art Marilyn Monroe poster means nothing nowadays. Taste can’t be bought, but it also can if you hire a very good interior designer. We often speak of ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture as the hierarchy of art. Kitsch (derogatory) can be a condemnation of your very way of life when it comes to how you express yourself. ‘Taste’ itself becomes synonymous with class, and if you can cultivate value from the small telltale signs of high culture then your home becomes a set piece for the place in society you desire to be. Judging class means judging character, and embracing kitsch works in direct opposition to this by lovingly embracing what snotty insular circles have tried hard to distance themselves from. Kitsch rejects these classist and imposing ideals and, especially within the domestic space, does it on the most personal level. The home symbolically reflects our lifestyle, whilst the rich can litter their homes with the grand and the unusual, the familiar and the misunderstood tells a bold and unapologetic story. A quick look at Architectural Digestproves that many are trying to make their homes as stylistically modern as possible without actually saying much - kitsch has become more avant-garde than avant-garde itself.
Kim Kardashian, for instance, hired minimalist designer Axel Vervoordt to design her home. The key characteristics of his design were neutrals, simplicity and consistency. It’s a kind of consistency that even extends to her kids’ playroom, which had many confused as to why she’d want her children growing up believing they’re surviving in a bleak and colourless Dune-esque dystopia. Perhaps many celebrities prefer neutrality because it’s so easy to avoid criticisms of taste if your taste is really nothing at all. Kitsch is a pushback against this crisis of identity. The home is a place of nostalgia and warmth, something designers often forget. Kitsch is open-minded, it doesn’t want to be taken seriously. It’s a shame that the Kardashian kids will grow up to associate their childhood bedroom with the inside of a milk carton instead of dream catchers, glow in the dark stickers, and Cath Kidston pillows. Those clinical homes of the sanitised stark white variety seem to be an unfortunate side effect of the corporate world. There’s a growing detachment between identity and the home,which comes from an increasingly capitalistic culture. As Kim K said, defending her milk carton of a home, consistent minimalism is needed to contrast with the ‘chaos’ of the working world. The stress of work can deter us from doing too much with our homes, but this detachment erases what is important about where we live. Hustle culture has clearly eroded our desire for leisure time, and a little silliness in the form of some kitsch ornaments might be all we need to remind us. The tides are turning against this mindset. Thrifting is on the rise, with more people expressing themselves through second hand items. We’re giving homes to our parents and grandparents old vintage pieces, repurposing miscellaneous items to build up a new kind of interior style and embracing the ironic and antithetical. ‘Live love laugh’ might be the slogan of a generation of middle class mums lacking in self awareness, but even that is on its way to becoming a kitsch decor classic. There have been many interior design micro trends that have proven to be a sustainability nightmare, especially considering how domestic items are meant to be even more long lasting than clothes. There’s a big dilemma when it comes to self expression within the home, but eclectic and individualistic styles like cluttercore and maximalism have centred kitsch as a way to recycle lost and forgotten home pieces. On TikTok people are sharing the weird and wonderful decor pieces they’ve found in flea markets and charity shops. There have been auctions for ‘vintage’ Ikea and a rising interest in Cath Kidston classics, and artists like Naomi Anderson-Subryan and homeware designers like Helle Mardahl Studio have taken on elements of kitsch. Once mass produced and unspectacular home items are being released back into the wild to find a new life. With custom carpets being made of anything from Pokemon to playing cards, and bizarre little novelty lamps finding their way out of the depths of vintage stores, there are more ways than ever to incorporate kitsch into the home. In the same way that cyclical trends are repurposed to create new styles in fashion, we should be finding more ways to express ourselves in our own spaces by embracing all that is kitsch. Fun is back in fashion.