Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood 2021

Curator: This vibrant work by Robert Sammelin, titled "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood," was created in 2021. The piece utilizes acrylic paint in a distinctly pop-art poster style. Editor: Immediately, I'm struck by its playful energy. The bright colors and somewhat disjointed composition give it a real sense of movement, like a chaotic, sun-drenched fever dream. Curator: Absolutely. The image serves as the movie poster and therefore an iconic summary of Tarantino's love letter to a bygone era of Hollywood. There's a deliberate construction of symbolic personas for a specific viewership. Editor: And those personas are layered with iconography. The palm trees, the classic car, the figures themselves—Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, of course. Even the dog feels… intentional. Almost like a stand-in for innocence amidst the swirling potential for violence and a loss of innocence in general, or rather...Hollywoodization? Curator: The artist, intentionally or not, is tapping into a long history of Hollywood's self-mythologizing. It plays with our cultural memory, doesn't it? We're instantly transported to a very specific, romanticized vision of the late 1960s, and its turbulent, sometimes dark realities. Notice how the imagery mixes lightness and dark at different depths, for example. Editor: I do. The characters feel less like real people and more like symbols embodying this particular cultural moment and their own roles as commodities within the larger entertainment machinery. The title looms large, declaring a fairy tale quality to what is ultimately a pretty cut-throat and surreal industry. Curator: Exactly. Sammelin's piece works as more than a promotional item; it acts as an artwork interrogating Hollywood's ongoing influence on our collective narrative and expectations. Editor: Ultimately, this work gives its viewers a fascinating glimpse into how powerful even one industry can be on influencing contemporary imagination. Curator: Indeed. By drawing on our shared cultural history and iconography, it becomes a powerful commentary.