“Grabner’s embrace of the unoriginal is directly connected to philosopher Fredric Jameson’s conception of “pastiche.” In the book Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1989), Jameson describes pastiche as,

like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody’s ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter and of any conviction that alongside the abnormal tongue you have momentarily borrowed, some healthy linguistic normality still exists. Pastiche is thus a blank parody, a statue with blind eyeballs...²

Grabner’s use of pastiche is an intentional ethical response to contemporary American capitalism to reflect a broader desensitized, yet hyper-aware public, that has grown more distrustful of the competence and ethics of industry, government, and by extension, modernism’s utopic ideals. In the current late stage in American capitalism there is an overall sensibility of privatization, deregulation, and expansion of both material and immaterial commodities. These aspects have led to further attacks on the everyday with notable examples being pollution due to the global market, an emphasis on increased pro!t margins, and commodity culture.” (p. 39-40)

Full Text2. Fredric Jameson, “The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” in Postmodernism, or the Cultural
Logic of Late Capitalism (Duke University Press, 1991), 17.