92 SARASOTA SCENE | MARCH 2018
on the town
has lent us some of the original ads that
he’s worked with. It allows to see what the
original context was. We learn that when
an image is coded with copy and text, often
it changes the way we interpret the image.
When it’s removed, we see it for the blunt
statement that it is.
Executive material
Switching to the 1960s now, we see a
woman who is in charge with a briefcase
and with a sense of authority and
importance. Of course she’s being shown
in her underwear and being objectified as
well. It’s a complicated image, but her body
is still the focus of the image.
The “how-to guide” to living (‘cause you’re
doing it wrong)
Hank has come up with these titles as his
interpretation of the images. They’re not the
original ads, they are his particular spin on
it. This is disturbing and reflects a little
bit of the shock attitude of the 1990s.
It seemed like a good idea at the time…
This is from the 2000s. A lot of his
images have a lot of ambiguity to them,
so there are a lot of ways to read them.
In this image it seems that this woman
has had maybe “a one-night stand” with
someone, and then in the morning she’s
rethinking that choice, whereas her
partner is very much into the moment.
It’s a new way to present women where
they’re seen as capable of being in
charge of their sexuality and their sexual
orientation. But at the end of the day
it’s an image that reflects our changing
values, but it was used in an ad to sell
Cadbury chocolate.
Just as our Forefathers intended…
This is a reference to the crossing of the
Delaware by George Washington. Here
you have women in bikinis completely
objectified. It’s an ad selling pick-up
trucks. Again what does any of this have
to do with the capabilities of a pick-up
truck?
The Breakfast Belle…
One of the ideas behind the series was
not only showing how women have
been presented, but there is also an
idea of the white female that’s racially
coded, and a hierarchy in which blacks
are presented subservient or surveil. In
this image we see the privileged white
couple being served by a stereotypical
black man who resembles someone
you’d see in a minstrel show.
Reflections in Black by Corporate
America…
Here he looks at how black people were
presented or marketed to from 1968-
2008. He’s thinking about and looking
at ads in the time period between when
Martin Luther King was assassinated
to when Barack Obama was elected
president.
Who do you hope comes to the exhibit?
I think there is fairly broad appeal to
the show. We’re all marketed to and this
is the culture that we are all a part of.
I definitely would love to see students
attend the exhibit from our high schools
and our local universities and colleges.
“Just as our Forefathers Intended”
“The Breakfast Belle”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time”