Steven Heller|Observer Quarterly
July 18, 2016
Tags: A Selection, II
Price tags and hang tags are essential to any merchant class system. They provide information, but also trigger the consumption instincts of the consuming mass. These tags have an inherent beauty for collectors of popular, ephemeral culture. Karl Marx spoke of commodity fetishism. These tags—for all manner of products—are fetishized artifacts, and also the amuse bouches that whet the appetite for (and names the price of) the main course in the feast of collecting.
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By Steven Heller
Steven Heller is the co-chair (with Lita Talarico) of the School of Visual Arts MFA Design / Designer as Author + Entrepreneur program and the SVA Masters Workshop in Rome. He writes the Visuals column for the New York Times Book Review, a weekly column for The Atlantic online and The Daily Heller.
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