Christopher Campbell - “Vanity’s Duel”

Does a young man’s vehicular obsession start with the vanity plate? Not the DMV kind… rather, those potent rectangular amulets keeping company with the pukka-shell necklaces and keychain-souvenirs all through America’s coastal towns… or, amongst the liberty gauntlet and carbon-copy counterfeits of Canal Street. It’s no stretch to see a lust for adornment felt by the synergy of keychain-to-backpack, becoming a lust to accessorize a vehicle. Both elicit the same sense of self discovery in a world of pre-made personalization…that’s SO me!

On the Grid-Wall Menu, offerings include not just Name and State, but religious proclivity, political affiliation, sexual appetite, gender affirmation, and fantasies of utopia… all in bold stamped aluminum with glitter and flames! Am I a “#1 DAD” or just “SEXXXY”?! Only thing I can say for certain is, “JESUS SAVES” and, the ancient Chinese philosophy of “yin and yang” is very COOL!…attaching that spiritual iconography to places of hedonism is, surely, just a quintessential example of said philosophy… surely.

It’s amongst all these human-fishing lures, with their fetishistic finishes in sparkle and neon, that a young man can feel over-stimulated, confused, tangled, or even a bit equestrian.


Instagram: @christopher_thomas_campbell

Triptych in oak, autobody paint, acrylic, and keychains