In contemporary consumer culture, reality has been dissolved and replaced by a proliferation of images and simulations.

Like a necromancer, it reanimates the corpses of bygone trends, ideologies, and aesthetics, then sells them back to us at a markup.

Like a mother bird, capitalism regurgitates the digested media of the past into our mouths and we eat it up every time. In 2024 the top 10 highest grossing films all came from pre-existing intellectual property, and over half of the six major Hollywood studios movies for 2025 will likewise pull from existing IP.1

Everywhere I look there seems to be a longing for the past in the form of advertised and commodified nostalgia. But why?

In a necromancy-esque ritual these celebrities and artists are risen from the grave, their corpses hoisted on puppet strings in another display of performance.