Rebekah Modrak’s Re Made Co. takes over the storefront windows of Incident Report in Hudson, New York, Aug. 14 through Sept. 14.
Re Made Co. exists as a “company” via website and social media that parodies the urban woodsman aesthetic of Best Made Co, which markets designer axes through the rhetoric of authenticity, the appropriation of working-class identities, and the revitalization of traditional male roles. Re Made Co. substitutes Best Made Co.‘s $300 urban axe with a $300 toilet plunger and satirizes their marketing campaign through design, social media, and photography.
This project uses critical design to pose pivotal questions related to the aestheticization and commodification of tools: Why are tools meant for work stylized and sold as luxury items? How is working-class labor sanitized and sold for white-collar fantasy? How are objects marketed with contradictory references, each promising “authentic” experiences that will lead to self-fulfillment?