Surfing the Net all day? Wear this hoodie and sweats
Artist Cory Arcangel makes a statement with his new clothes for Internet fiends, but wearers can decide for themselves what the line means for them.
- Third place film critic, 2021 LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards
When you sit on the couch watching cat videos all day, it helps to wear comfy clothes. And while ratty old pajamas will do just fine, artist Cory Arcangel's designed a line specifically for the task.
It's Arcangel Surfware, which consists of "everything one needs to 'chill' in bed all day and surf the Internet in comfort: sweat pants, sweat shirts, bed sheets, pillow covers, iPad and iPhone covers, magazines, and music," reads a press release from global music merchandising company Bravado, which is teaming with Arcangel on the line.
Arcangel will sell the goods for $39.95 to $399.95 at a one-day pop-up shop at the Holiday Inn Soho this Saturday, May 17, and they'll remain online here thereafter. Click on that link and then shield your eyes: you'll be taken to a site with giant, bright-yellow letters that require lots of scrolling in order to be read, plus "Seinfeld" and "Regis and Kelly" clips looping constantly in the background.
Given the site's extremely loud, '90s-style cautionary-tale design and the fact that Arcangel has exhibited his work in such venues as New York's distinguished Whitney Museum of American Art, it's not too much of a leap to say the artist has a thing or two to say about the cacophony the Internet can bring to modern life.
"The collaboration is the first of its kind and an artistic statement itself, albeit a marketable and accessible one," Bravado says.
But while Arcangel Surfware is clearly a statement on today's Internet, the Brooklyn-based multimedia artist tells Crave that, "in a way, the line is actually a throwback.
"Modern net habits are quite fractured and chaotic. U know, I might go on Twitter waiting in line at Walgreens, or I might peek at the NyTimes on my way to work on my phone. So, it's very mobile, and broken now," the artist told Crave in an email peppered with emoji, possibly used ironically. "It's rare I sit down in front of my computer and totally zone out. And, I guess, Arcangel Surfware kinda rubs against that, and says, why not chill a bit, and take it easy. U know, get on some cotton socks, sweats, hoodie, and go down a YouTube hole. That's the life! U know, a zen kinda thing."
The pop-up shop is part of a show titled "You Only Live Once," Arcangel's first one-person exhibition featuring new work in the US since his Whitney exhibit in 2011. That year, Arcangel became the youngest person to be honored with a one-person show at the Whitney with his exhibition Cory Arcangel: Pro Tools, which was filled with works created using technology.
