The Great Wave off Cookie Monstergawa
Powerful…calming…emotional…awe-inspiring. These words describe Katsushika Hokusai’s Kanagawa oki nami ura (The Great Wave), an iconic work of Japanese art that garnered widespread attention upon its creation and remains famous to this day (Hokusai, 1831). Playing off the work’s cultural significance, professional photographer and artist Sonny Malhotra created Sea is for Cookie and posted it on Twitter (Malhotra, 2013). In this whimsical parody, Malhotra photoshopped mismatched googly eyes and chocolate chip cookies onto The Great Wave to create the allusion that the wave is Cookie Monster devouring his favorite food. The childish style and subject-matter of Sea is for Cookie feels diametrically opposed to the reverence associated with The Great Wave; but this dichotomy contributes to its growing appeal. Furthermore, Malhotra’s playful work adds to a rich collection of digital pieces that bend the boundary between high and low art.
The Great Wave is a cultural artifact that shapes an entire artistic style and reflects Japan’s cultural identity. This woodblock print left a lasting impact on the art historical community by utilizing a new paint pigment and employing the concept of depth in a revolutionary manner. The piece’s depiction of the sacred Mount Fuji makes it an emblem of Japan’s strength and resilience (Lidz, 2017).
In contrast, the style of Sea is for Cookie toes the line of whimsical and absurd, creating the aesthetic of “camp.” According to renowned culture critic Susan Sontag (1964), camp is characterized by love of “things-being-what-they-are-not” (p. 3). Even though campy things usually don’t intend to be funny, Sea is for Cookie embodies camp by stripping a piece of high culture of its elite status through ridicule. For centuries, critics have analyzed every brushstroke of The Great Wave to derive deep meaning. However, no symbolism can be extracted from Sea is for Cookie. Instead, the piece’s power lies in its ability to playfully “dethrone the serious” (Sontag, 1964, p. 10). Guided by artifice and imaginative playfulness, Sea is for Cookie unapologetically embraces the outlandish, adding creative exaggeration to a traditional work revered by elite art historians.
The content of Sea is for Cookie plays off society’s cultural reverence for The Great Wave, making it inextricably tied to the original work. A central part of Sea is for Cookie is the assumption that viewers will recognize The Great Wave, thus Malhotra doesn’t make significant changes to the original piece. Furthermore, his photoshop additions are not high-tech. Walter Benjamin, a philosopher and literary figure in 1930’s art circles, would criticize the content of Sea is for Cookie. Benjamin (1936) argues that digital technology makes reproduced art “a forgery, the original preserved all its authority” (p. 50). Benjamin would consider Sea is for Cookie an inauthentic, crude representation of the original The Great Wave. Furthermore, without knowledge of the original context, people would dismiss Sea is for Cookie as uninspiring, thus raising concerns about how revolutionary Malhotra’s work really is.
Communication expert and professor Limor Shifman, would push back, arguing that Benjamin’s perspective on the inauthenticity of reproduction doesn’t hold up for a digital creation intended to be distributed on social media. Shifman (2014) would classify Sea is for Cookie as a meme, more specifically a “remix”: “a technology-based manipulation” (p. 22) of The Great Wave. But what makes Sea is for Cookie special isn’t how authentic or close to the original it is, but rather the creativity behind it: “users who upload a self-made video or a Photoshopped image signify that they are digitally literate, unique, and creative” (Shifman, 2014, p. 33). The purpose of Malhotra’s piece is to showcase the imagination required to see a connection between a Japanese print and Cookie Monster. Thus, by sharing his creation, Malhotra demonstrates his own values and talents. When people on the internet laugh at the digital reproduction, they build up Malhotra’s identity as a funny artist.
Sea is for Cookie’s digital origin builds a relationship with its audience that transcends the boundaries of class. Sea is for Cookie is part of a large network of parodies that play with the barrier between high and low art, meaning it “relates to a common, widely shared memetic video, image, or formula” (Shifman, 2014, p. 33). In 2017, The Royal Academy of Art, a London museum, released an article describing the most parodied artworks in history (Sheen, 2017). It situated The Great Wave as one of many works of high art that have been remixed. Sea is for Cookie is one work among a plethora of digital remixes of The Great Wave. All together, these parodies form “monstrously sized groups of texts and images” (Shifman, 2014, p. 30). Sea is for Cookie is a remix intended for self-aware art historians, like the author of the Royal Academy article. However, the cultural item’s unique position as a Twitter post extends its reach beyond the artistic community. Sea is for Cookie is liked and shared even by non-artists, who can laugh at the depiction of a well-loved Sesame Street character and perhaps even feel inspired to make their own art-memes.
Thus, the intended audience of Sea is for Cookie extends beyond that of The Great Wave. In 2021, a print of The Great Wave sold for $1.6 million (Villa, 2021). Benjamin (1936) argues that “mechanical reproduction emancipates the work of art from its parasitical dependence on ritual” (p. 53). Sea is for Cookie isn’t about the ritual of going to admire art in a museum or buying it for millions at a posh event; rather it's about sharing the content on digital platforms. The fun, eccentric piece belongs on social media.
Sea is for Cookie was designed for and disseminated on Twitter and cannot be divorced from this origin. Even though it’s based upon high art, the goal of this meme isn’t to imitate. Instead, Malhotra employs absurdity to ridicule and exaggerate high art to make people laugh. Malhotra’s success is evident, as individuals can now find Sea is for Cookie on silly $40 shower curtains, cheap $5 greeting cards, and tacky $15 t-shirts. It has effectively transcended the rigid boundaries of class, re-shared on social networks by anonymous users who laugh at its creativity as well as art experts who marvel at its whimsical genius.
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