Oh My Head! Day 28 #100DaysStudioObj

One print remains of this collage I got quite a bit of traction with on my Etsy shop and at Unique LA. It's a wonderfully simple piece that I never actually glued down, but just scanned the two pieces on top of each other and then put in Photoshop and printed on nice pillowy paper. (Where are the original pieces, I wonder? In the stacks.)

Both pieces were from advertisements in the same 1950's issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Or was it Good Housekeeping? It was one of these two magazines guiding women on how to keep a nice home. The ads are for a canned meat product and dish soap. The food on the woman's head is baked SPAM and cheese and she's frowning at the state of her dirty dishes (another image in the ad features her beaming smile when the soap and her scrubbing works wonders). 

The collaged image gets a laugh and the title helps it along, but in truth the intention is quiet serious. I was thinking about a particular middle class woman's role in her family and the expectations and limitations of the time. Expected to cook for all in the house, she is confronted with bizarrely colorful  and cheery advertisements of decidedly unhealthy food on the one hand and products that will make the cleaning up process afterward a joyful experience on the other.

She cooks, she cleans, she smiles all the way. It's oppressive and headache inducing. Oh My Head indeed.

And, well it is also a funny image. The collage started a mini series of me putting vaguely hat-shaped food on women's heads.