art

Despite Your Manly Bits, Art.com Signs You Up For Working Mother Magazine

By 2.14.08

Reader Brian doesn’t have a womb, so when he saw a copy of Working Mother magazine in his mailbox, he was pretty sure that he didn’t order it:

Last December I placed an order at art.com for a framed print which I intended to give as a Christmas present. I placed the order well within art.com’s recommended time frame for delivery in time for christmas. During the order they promised delivery by December 17th. Well, as you may guess December 17th came and went with no package (they shipped it on the 15th via DHL.) December 24th came and went with no package. DHL finally delivered it on the 26th after I had been forced to go out and purchase another gift to replace the one that had not arrived.

Polaroid Instant Film Is Dead

Polaroid Instant Film Is Dead

By 2.13.08

”We’re trying to reinvent Polaroid so it lives on for the next 30 to 40 years,” Tom Beaudoin, Polaroid’s president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said in a phone interview Friday.

Cruise Ship Art Auctions Scams

Cruise Ship Art Auctions Scams

By consumerist.com 12.13.07

Here’s a fun scam: buying art at auction on cruise ships. In one case, a woman paid $20,000 for what she thought were high-value Salvadore Dali, but when they got shipped to her, an independent appraiser told her they were worth maybe $700 each. The business is conducted on international waters, so there’s no consumer protection laws to throw you a lifesaver. Consumerama says they’re not even run under real auction rules, but are instead, “coordinated inebriated sales hysteria.”

Man Builds Secret Apartment At Mall, Gets Away With It For Four Years

Man Builds Secret Apartment At Mall, Gets Away With It For Four Years

By cwalters 10.3.07

An artist in Providence, Rhode Island was apprehended the other day by mall security as he left the secret apartment he’d built almost four years ago, in an unused utility space in the mall’s parking garage. The apartment had no running water (they used mall bathrooms), but it did include “a sectional sofa and love seat, coffee and breakfast tables, chairs, lamps, rugs, paintings, a hutch filled with china, a waffle iron, TV and Sony Playstation 2,” according to the Boston Globe.

By consumerist.com 8.29.07

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Whether or not Paho Mann’s pictorial taxonomy of all of his and his partner’s personal possessions, sortable by color, cize, material, location, owner, cost, use type, and use amount, cause you to reevaluate your personal politics of consumerism is up for debate, but it’s unquestionable that his site is neat. [Sort]

Should Airports Use Art To Improve Their Image?

Should Airports Use Art To Improve Their Image?

By consumeristcarey 7.31.07

Airports throughout the nation are stocking up on art to entertain bored passengers and promote the local economy. Atlanta already has 300 pieces of art, including “a large display of stone sculptures from Zimbabwe,” a collection rivaled by Phoenix’s 500 pieces, such as “strands-of-light-reflecting-glass artwork.” Are these cultural offerings pleasant distractions, or intrusive nuisances? Vote in our poll, after the jump.

Roadside Blasphemy: Walgreens Replacing Chicagoland Icon

Roadside Blasphemy: Walgreens Replacing Chicagoland Icon

By consumerist.com 7.23.07

“The Spindle,” sometimes known as the Car-Kabob, a giant sculpture in the parking lot of the Cermak Plaza strip mall in Berwyn, Illinois, is set to be destroyed as part of a strip mall reconstruction. Instead, drugstore megachain Walgreens, apparently not content with its near-complete saturation of the Chicagoland landscape, will replace the legendary sculpture. Goodbye, quirky art, hello, homogeneity! (You might remember the 1989 sculpture by artist Dustin Shuler from the movie “Wayne’s World.”) But fans of the art and the citizens of the Chicago suburb of Berwyn aren’t sitting still: The website SaveTheSpindle.com has launched, and there’s a resolution in the Illinois House decrying the teardown. Will the sculpture survive? Hit the supporters’ site and show ’em your love.

For Nearly Free, Man Eats Almost Only "Satisfied Or Your Money Back" Food For 8 Years

For Nearly Free, Man Eats Almost Only "Satisfied Or Your Money Back" Food For 8 Years

By consumerist.com 5.23.07

Have you heard of Matthieu Laurette? From 1993 to 2001, he fed and cleaned himself by buying almost only products with “Satisfied or your money back” or “Money back on first purchase” items, then filing the rebates or writing to the companies and saying he wasn’t satisfied.

Advertising Equals Graffiti

Advertising Equals Graffiti

By consumerist.com 5.15.07

New York City has these special video billboards at the top of subway stops playing silent movies for Lexus, Chanel, and NBC. It’s kinda beautiful, and kinda annoying.

The Hellraiser Sneaker

The Hellraiser Sneaker

By consumerist.com 6.27.06

Just do it.

Gas by Dash Snow

Gas by Dash Snow

By consumerist.com 4.28.06

Your pain at the pump is palatable, but what ring of the underworld inferno should we consider this?

Banksy Pranks British Telecom with Bloody Telephone Booth

Banksy Pranks British Telecom with Bloody Telephone Booth

By consumerist.com 4.10.06

This retro British Telecom (BT) telephone box, pierced by pick axe, was a recent unauthorized outdoor art installation by guerrilla artist Banksy in London’s SoHo square. It was removed shortly afterwards by the London City Council.

HOWTO: Turn the Shopping Mall into a Nativist Paradise

HOWTO: Turn the Shopping Mall into a Nativist Paradise

By consumerist.com 4.5.06

A panel from an instruction manual on creating a Shangri-La within the shopping mall. As the video game Civilization taught us, all revolutions undergo a period of chaos and anarchy, also known as “the fun part,” illustrated below.

Nike Air Jordans as Shoe Sculpture Porn

Nike Air Jordans as Shoe Sculpture Porn

By consumerist.com 3.15.06

Nike Air Jordans repurposed by artists Brian Jungen into sculptures, pointed to us by ObsessiveConsumption. Some of these resemble dinosaur skulls. Some of them are analogues for the route it takes to get a human on telephone customer service.

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