2007 was the 50th anniversary of the publication of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road. To celebrate, media artist xtine made an edition of fifty hand-made, letterpress printed, paper shopping bags to be distributed to shoppers at City Lights Bookstore on what would have been Kerouac’s 85th birthday: March 12, 2007.
"Happy Birthday, Jack" appears on the handle of the bag.
The shopping bags are conceptual renderings of On The Road. A hybrid visual-literary public arts event placed xtine’s art in the hands of unassuming shoppers. This project, in its design and public execution, addresses themes of voyeurism and anti-consumerism, found in Kerouac’s novel. The bags are made of kraft paper and feature a peephole on the front of the bag. A quote from On The Road is cut in two pieces, half displayed on the back of the bag and half appears inside the peephole. The bag reads, “I sat there with these two madmen…Nothing happened.” (Kerouac, page 177)
"Nothing Happened" can be seen printed inside the peep-hole.
In the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, where nearly everything has happened in the last fifty years, these bags are designed to traverse the city in the hands of shoppers who will sit on public seats and benches with all of the mad people in Kerouac’s future-Frisco.
Shoppers leaving City Lights Bookstore on March 12, 2007.
Paradise Obscura usurps the visual identity of a shopping bag. The elements of Kerouac’s seminal text are returned to the city where it was, in part, born. One of Sal Paradise’s (Kerouac’s protagonist and other voice) thoughts while traveling in San Francisco is manipulated by the construction of the shopping bag. On the outside of the bag, half of the message, “I sat there with these two madmen” places words in the hands of the consumer, as if labeled by Kerouac, himself. On the inside of the bag, the message incriminates the consumer, “Nothing happened.” This text could be translated to, “I bought something new…nothing happened.” The bag challenges beliefs and attitudes perpetuated by a consumer culture where “You are what you wear.”
A shopper with his bag near the City Lights Bookstore front entrance.
Following the tradition of the Situationists International, a spectacle is made of the viewing public by the transformation of the meaning of everyday materials. The bags are used in the act of a Debordian detournment. The bags benefit from the traditionally passive role of the consumer while luring onlookers to a text that both celebrates Kerouac’s work and indicts those situated within reading distance. The familiarity with the visual language of the shopping bags enables the consumption of the subversive message.
Download the 2007 press release or view images of shoppers on Flickr.