Although I did not get to see Julia Jacquette in person, I did visit the installation at the Wellin. I was enthralled by Jacquette’s “American advertisement” exhibit which engages with contemporary art in the form of advertisement. The exhibit exploits the methods through which American advertisement convinces viewers to purchase products, while critiquing that very behavior. Jacquette took pieces of American fashion and beauty magazines and painted them on a large scale. The effect is what often looks like a close up shot of a Coca-Cola advertisement, but instead is an expanded version of a 4”x4” cutout of a picture of a dress. The size of these images in the Wellin make the statement that our coveting for new products is a phenomenon that encompasses the American experience. The colors from the above piece are an inviting shade of caramel and white. Vogue Magazine, one of Jacquette’s influences for this project, intends to immerse viewers. I have long been interested in how artists for companies make art for advertisements. Beauty magazines often eschew uplifting substance with vapid images of blatant consumerism. An entire industry that is just devoted to selling products. There are no column pieces or editorials sharing interesting points of view on societal issues. Instead, there are only pictures that enchant viewers into buying their products. Jacquette seems to recognize this phenomenon of American consumer’s fascination with magazines and general consumerism. In addition to recognizing it, she aims also to show what captivates us about the lust for more, but she also critiques the companies that feed off of America’s consumerist society. In summary, even though Jacquette, once again, adds to the consumerist cycle by displaying these images for more people to see thereby supposedly giving the original company’s products more exposure – it is the company that loses in the end because there name does not appear on any of the pieces. Maybe this is the answer that Jacquette puts forth: we must take back the beauty that “they” try to sell us and recreate it for free.