Help me find examples of Soviet-bloc nostalgia art.

December 28, 2008 11:00 AM

Frederic Jameson's Fear and Loathing in Globalization talks about Eastern European/Soviet nostalgia art, "in which a complete set of mass-produced industrial products, from toilet seats to window panes, from shower heads to automobiles, had been invented from scratch, altogether different from the actually existing Western inventory." Are there any examples of this type of art on the web?
posted by matkline to media & arts (5 comments total)

Hmmm... this may not answer your question specifically but Steampunk comes to mind. Also, have a look at the art of Shepard Ferry. This is also interesting http://k0a1a.net/
posted by ezekieldas at 11:54 AM on December 28, 2008

The paper is here, for anyone wishing to read it. Thanks for the reference -- I ended up reading the entire thing.

The machines from the Flintstones was the first thing I thought of -- record players run by dinosaurs, etc.
posted by suedehead at 12:04 PM on December 28, 2008

BoingBoing covered this gallery of extinct products from the Soviet Union. Creepy toys.
posted by stray at 12:19 PM on December 28, 2008

This is a Russian mail order catalog from 1983, I think it might be along the lines of what you're looking for.
posted by davey_darling at 1:58 PM on December 28, 2008

There's an amazing gallery of East German consumer goods from that era here. They always strike me as something from a parallel universe.
posted by pb at 8:14 PM on December 28, 2008