Old film stills, carefully centred, cropped, and scaled, are painted in a generous flurry of sparkles and fragmented lights. Frozen expressions - fleeting gestures and parted lips - are layered and distorted in monographic tones of insipid greens. Artist Louise Giovanelli reappropriates archival imagery through a distinctly contemporary lens, curating and reinterpreting moments from historic films and media. Her subjects often include iconic cinematic moments, such as Carrie drenched in pig’s blood (1976), though her focus most often tends to be those that are far more temporal and fleeting, like the delicate handling of martini glass, or the shimmering reflections on a sequin dress. Giovanelli’s work embodies ‘Newstalgia’ - a revisiting of archival material, reimagined with the aesthetics of today.
Newstalgia, a concept that combines a desire for novelty with a longing for the familiar, is a phenomenon embraced by young consumers, creators, and brands. People are mining the past to craft new narratives, drawing on the semiotic richness of archival material to connect with audiences in a deeper and more emotive way. Semiotics, the study of signs and symbols and their interpretation, provides a powerful framework for understanding how people derive meaning through imagery; the media, rich with visuals, subtly shapes our values, tastes, and beliefs. By revisiting and reshaping past imagery, both artists and brands engage with the cultural subconscious, where nostalgia merges with contemporary sensibilities to create something at once familiar and fresh.
This shared act of curating and reinterpreting archival material to evoke specific emotions or cultural narratives engages audiences through a blend of familiarity and innovation and has proven to be a highly effective marketing tool, not just for brands, but for politicians. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” embodied the philosophies of Newstalgia, reminding Americans of what was a seemingly happier time with a promise to return to it, winning him two election victories. Similarly, during the EU referendum Brexit supporters employed the slogan “take back control” evoking nostalgia for Britain’s past before joining the EU. This powerful storytelling model, rooted in collective memory, has demonstrated its ability to sway public sentiment and win majority votes.
Like our politicians, brands increasingly look to revisit glorified moments of their own pasts - those which were in effect what popularised them in the first place. Heinz capitalises on the reliability of home comforts throughout generations when sipping their signature soups, as it always “has to be Heinz”. Samsung's “join the flip-side” campaign sees a woman troubled by the many renditions of folding, or flipping throughout her daily endeavours (the closing of a fridge door, the shutting of a book), as she’s haunted by the pragmatism and tactility that comes from a modernised version of Samsung’s flip-phone. Adidas celebrated the brand's cultural legacy by revisiting three iconic football silhouettes, paired with striped crew socks (notably popularised in the 50s and 60s), captured in a grainy and vintage-film finish.
For brands, the opportunity lies in drawing from the semiotic richness of the past - whether it be through recapturing monumental ‘moments’, or the aesthetic appeal of classical silhouettes found in fashion, tech or furnishings - and repurposing them with a fresh and contemporary twist. Visual artists have long explored and experimented with the reimagining of cultural symbols, creating a rich visual archive of semiotic material. Warhol epitomised this practice, borrowing, replicating, and repurposing imagery, symbols, and colours from his immediate environment, creating in effect an anthropological archive of branding and pop culture, all within a pre-internet era. Today, Giovanelli remixes the cultural moment, drawing on collective memories and reframing this through a painterly, modernised lens. By blurring the boundaries between past and present, her work becomes a testament to how archival material can transcend its original context, becoming something timeless yet distinctly contemporary.
In essence, the allure of Newstalgia lies in its ability to synthesise the old and the new, fostering connections between generations, aesthetics, and emotions. Whether in fine art, political campaigns or marketing material, it invites audiences to reimagine the past, not as a fixed moment in history, but as a living, evolving narrative. As we continue to explore this cultural phenomenon, a question arises: how far can we go in reinterpreting the familiar before it becomes unrecognisable? For now, the enduring appeal of Newstalgia suggests that the balance between memory and modernity will remain a compelling space for innovation.
Interested in an exploration of how historical nostalgia serves Gen Z psychologically? We have a separate report on just that. We collaborated with the Human Flourishing Lab at the Archbridge Institute to explore how historical nostalgia helps young people shape their identities, spark creativity, and tackle modern challenges by drawing from the past. Dive into this thought-provoking analysis of a phenomenon shaping the cultural and psychological dynamics of today’s youth.