Tourist Icons challenge viewers to rethink the relationship between kitsch and camp,
and to reassess your underlying attitudes about popular culture.
You are encouraged to understand
these culturally complex objects without resorting to the use of biased terms. While the
exhibition uses the terms kitsch and camp, it does not make value judgments about the souvenirs on display.
This exhibition investigates mementos from a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary perspective. It explores
what popular culture tells us about ourselves as consumers, as collectors, and as storytellers. Yet,
simultaneously these deceptively simple works enlighten us about the makers of souvenirs, and their motivations.
Joseph Traugott
Curator of Twentieth Century Art
Museum of New Mexico
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