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At the 1964 World's Fair, a work of art was installed on the outside of the New York State Pavilion. It was an electric sign that boomed a single golden word: "EAT." At the fair it aroused too much hunger that led nowhere. People believed they could find food, but there was only the electric light of the sign. The artist, Robert Indiana, was asked to turn it off.

Indiana's artwork commented on the blind alleys of all kinds of signs that advertise nourishment. Ads invent hunger; they don't satisfy it. But flipping the terms around, can art ever feed people? The American Pop artists of the 1960s flaunted that question, ultimately wondering what kind of art can feed an audience. They taught us to notice the identities of products, and even more so, to notice everything as a product, including ourselves. They were pioneers in making us wonder exhaustively about what we're being sold and whether we want to buy it. All the art in Seattle Art Museum's exhibition Pop Departures, including Indiana's sign, is asking whether you "buy" it, and your response will be determined by whether it feeds you...

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