if kitsch is the "absence of s___ in the world," why not use "holy kitsch" to subvert it?

Yes, this is  a real store, info here

In their hugely underappreciated "Pop"/"Pop Mart" era, U2 used an ironic subversion:
 they embraced pop culture/ kitsch to critique pop culture/kitsch.

If you missed the press conference at K-Mart, experience it at

• "reconciling Ash Wednesday and K Mart..or not"

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If you want to read up on the U2 kitsch connection, read:

• Kitsch For PopMart Tour

• Kitsch Of Distinction

• Lumia domestica, looking for light under the kitsch

 

Greg Clarke, opens his chapter "Bono v. Nick Cave" ("Exploring U2: Is This Rock 'n' Roll?") with  "CHRISTIAN KITSCH IS THE KITSCHIEST of all kitsch and perhaps the most profound...Betty Spackman defines kitsch as a lie that tells the truth."

 

In a post on "How do you define 'kitsch'?,"  Jeffrey Overstreet  quotes Transpositions by Tim Gorringe:

“In … The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera says two things about kitsch: first, that it represents ‘the absence of shit in the world’ – in other words, the refusal to be honest about pain and evil; second, that looking at kitsch two tears fall, one at the subject and the other which notes what a tender emotional being I am to be moved by this. Kitsch, we can say, is a particularly vicious version of emotivism.

…

Kitsch, in fact, is one of Satan’s prime stratagems to undermine the gospel, to turn it from something which turns the world upside down to a cheap tinsel decoration which helps us feel ‘good about ourselves’ (one of the mantras of our contemporary culture) whilst allowing injustice to go unchecked.”  link