Kilimnik emerged in the 1980s with installations of objects, paintings, and drawings that explore historical mythologies through the lens of contemporary popular culture. As its title suggests, this drawing addresses the romanticization of the 1960s. Beneath a figure with obscured eyes, Kilimnik copied the text of a letter to the editor from the December 1992 issue of Vogue magazine. The letter condemns the fashion mainstay for its glamorization in a previous issue of a decade dominated by violence, drugs, and social unrest. The artist keeps herself at arm's length by reproducing the letter almost in full, including its author's name. Notably, she omits one section of the letter, in which the writer lists the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. among the era's tragedies. The phrase "you are very sleepy" floats near the figure alongside spirals, connoting the perpetration of a kind of mass hypnosis.
In drawing: you are very sleepy / Hellish sixties / To the Editors: / I am absolutely mystified by the current fascination with the 1960s and the fashions of that era. Eve Babitz ("Hippie Heaven," October) contends that we need to wear fringe to show that we aren't "material" and tells us that LSD is a wonderful experience. Then there is Madonna all decked out in hippie regalia, still looking like the "material girl" to me in $540 suede bell-bottoms and an $800 skimpy chiffon blouse. / The sixties were not glamorous or innocent as your October issue would have us believe. All I remember about the sixtues was the Vietnam War, the _... + the extremely widespread drug culture that affected rich + poor alike, including my family, + it was pure hell. / I'll just sit this trend (and it is a trend Ms. Babitz) out, thank you. / Heather Flatley / Pacific Grove, CA / VOGUE DECEMBER 1992.; dated at bottom right : 11am Feb10 93.