Tom Sachs Fun Town, 2021

Fun Town (2021) is part of Tom Sachs’s Rocket Factory Paintings series, related to the Rocket Factory project: a ‘trans-dimensional manufacturing plant’ that allows people to assemble their own NFT rockets from three branded virtual component sections. The works in the series are representative of these existing NFT components but stand as independent artworks in their own right. Here, the ‘Frankenrocket’ mention in the bottom right of the picture plane indicates that the rocket is composed of disparate branded components – in this case two referencing Budweiser beer and a third bearing the logo of the hygiene product brand Trojan – as opposed to the ‘Perfect Rocket’ inscription that accompanies rockets with three identical branded components. ‘The 30 brands we chose for the Rocket Factory are all deliberate,’ explains Sachs. ‘Brands form our sense of tribal belonging. In my childhood, at the kitchen table, we would discuss dad’s new car or mom’s new dress. Brands are the foundation of the dominant religion of our era – consumerism. Our relationship to branding is a way we define ourselves. We picked our 30 Rocket brands because of some attachment I have or because I identify with them on some level.’