Katrina Majkut
American Beer: 6-pack (Land of Hopportunity, Pursuit of Hoppiness, Amber Waves of Grain*, Special Premium Select Rare Edition, The New American Drought Beer, Life and Liberty Shotgunned), 2021
Cotton thread, Aida cloth, and aluminum can
15 x 15 inches
 
Beer has a special place in American culture. It is consumed to celebrate the good times and commiserate the bad. It‚Äôs a must-have at sports games, after work, barbeques, and bad-weather emergencies. It‚Äôs a social lubricator bringing people together. Even beer folklore has mythized America‚Äôs founding father, Ben Franklin"s love of it as saying, "Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy." Much of its status is attributed to its commercial success. Beer and ad companies married beer consumption with American values ‚ freedom, masculinity, strength, resilience, independence, pride, and much more. My beer can 6-pack artwork mimic classic beer advertising; however, they represent the different, more subtle issues embedded in beer/American culture and industry such as water scarcity, GMOs, American exceptionalism, toxic masculinity, and the increasingly harder to achieve ‚"American dream."