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WALSALL IS NEW HOME OF CELEBRITY
New exhibition explores fame and our connection to it through the work
of eight artists
20 February 2008: Starstruck, a new exhibition at
The New Art Gallery Walsall from 25 April - 15 June 2008 explores
our obsession with celebrity through the work of eight artists ranging
from the photography of Mario Testino, Alison Jackson and Yasumasa
Morimura, through to a specially commissioned performance/installation
by Jessica Voorsanger and a video installation by Candice Brietz.
Press Preview: Thursday 24 April 13.00hrs - 15.00hrs. Lunch and
transport from London provided.
Celebrity is everywhere and impossible to ignore. As is frequently acknowledged,
it has become one of the most powerful obsessions of our times whether
it lasts 15 minutes or a lifetime. It's not surprising that in the 21st
century, visual artists have become fascinated by the world of celebrity
and its wider social implications. Highly diverse in both content and
media, all the artists engage with the world of celebrity in different
yet often connected ways. Their explorations are sometimes critical and
sometimes celebratory and often both at once.
Mario Testino is one of the most celebrated photographers of today,
particularly in the worlds of celebrity and fashion. His subjects include
Kate Moss, Madonna, Robbie Williams and the late Diana, Princess of Wales
and he has created advertising campaigns for clients such as Gucci, Versace
and Gap. Testino is immersed into a world of high glamour. His subjects
are often primped and preened and beautifully posed and re-inforce the
glamour and status of the subject. Testino not only lives the dream, but
is a key protagonist in creating it.
Yasumasa Morimura has drawn upon iconic portraits of Hollywood
stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and Greta Garbo. These are
images which have become ingrained into our consciousness and seem to
encapsulate beauty, glamour, desirability and achievement. Morimura re-creates
these images as carefully as possible with the artist himself taking on
the role of the subject. Morimura has observed the wardrobe, make-up and
pose of the sitter and the composition and lighting employed in the original
photographs. They appear at once as a tender, celebratory homage to the
stars and to the original photographs, yet they also contain an element
of poignant tragedy. Morimura is a Japanese man which is clearly apparent
in his photographs. Set within the context of the silver screen goddesses
of Hollywood, he eloquently articulates a sense of isolation, of being
"other" and of never quite being able to live the dream.
Gavin Turk has also represented himself as another celebrity in
a series of works in which his own identity is conflated with that of
Andy Warhol. Turk's work has consistently dealt with notions of authenticity,
value and the mythology of the artist. For this exhibition, Turk has produced
a series of screenprints on canvas which directly reference Andy Warhol
and which draw upon a series of self-portraits created by Warhol for an
exhibition at Anthony d'Offay's gallery in London in 1986. The self-portraits
presented a typically deadpan view of Warhol characterised and effectively
branded by his messy, blonde "fright-wig".
In Turk's series of works however, it is Turk's face that looks out at
us from the canvas and it is Turk's head that wears the "fright-wig".
In this very conscious connection with Warhol, Turk is once again exploring
notions of authenticity, originality and the marketable identity of a
personality, in this case, the artist - or artists.
Jessica Voorsanger is an artist who has consistently explored popular
culture, and particularly our fascination with celebrities. She has often
focused upon the special relationship between fans and celebrities and
her early work dwelt on her own teenage obsession with David Cassidy and
the Partridge Family who became the subject of several works.
For this exhibition, Jessica was commissioned to create new work. She
has chosen to develop a performance installation entitled Stage Struck.
The work embraces the contemporary popular cultural phenomenon of karaoke
where participants can take the stage and for a few minutes, become the
performer, the centre of attention, the star. Through a series of events
throughout the exhibition, visitors will be invited to dress up as their
favourite stars, stand on stage and sing their favourite songs. They are
then recorded and presented on plasma screens over the duration of the
exhibition. Jessica herself is also a participant.
Peter Davies adopts something of the role of the fan in his epic
paintings such as The Hip One Hundred and The Hot One Hundred.
Lists of artists in order of their success are familiar to us through
the popular music charts and Davies's paintings seem to suggest something
of the nostalgia associated with avidly listening to the charts as a child
and writing down lists. This is evoked further through the use of bright
colours, frequent mis-spellings and the carefully constructed but far-from-perfectly
rendered grid.
In Davies' Hip One Hundred, he lists his favourite artists in order,
writing next to each a brief reference point. Just as the musical charts
change week by week in response to commercial sales, Davies' list is likely
to change too over time. The paintings seem to suggest both an obsession
with those in the public eye and also a certain fickleness regarding who
is in and out of favour at any given time.
Candice Breitz is renowned for her elaborate video and sound installations
which draw on the content and language of popular culture and the ways
in which it permeates our consciousness. Diorama, originally created
in 2002, draws on the popular TV programme and global phenomenon Dallas.
The programme was broadcast all over the world and households everywhere
were familiar with its main characters.
In Diorama, Candice Breitz takes nine of the main characters from
the show and presents them, each within a different monitor, within a
living room and bedroom, complete with carpets, furniture and fittings.
Breitz has undertaken a rigorous process of editing so that each character
constantly repeats a set of repetitive soundbites such as "Marry
me" from Bobby and "I don't want a drunk for a wife" for
JR. Released from the context of narrative, they are each engaged in an
endless cacophony of meaningless babble and their repeated gestures appear
like a kind of strange staccato dance. They appear as a tableau containing
relics from the past, historical cultural icons preserved not in formaldehyde
but in the ether of technology within a media-saturated world.
Francesco Vezzoli is an artist renowned for his engagement with
the world of celebrities. He works in a variety of media including video,
live performance and embroidery to create works, often on an epic scale,
that explore the mechanics of fame and publicity and the language of cultural
forms. In his seminal work, Trailer for the Remake of Gore Vidal's
Caligula, Vezzoli presents an impressively star-studded mock-trailer
for an imaginary re-make of the controversial 1979 cult classic Caligula.
Members of the original cast such as Helen Mirren and Adriana Asti appear
alongside stars such as Milla Jojovic, Benicio del Toro and Courtney Love.
Even the togas were designed by Donatella Versace. The abundance of stars,
the high quality production values and the familiar language of the Hollywood
film trailer with its distinctive voice-over create a humorous parody
of the vacuousness of Hollywood.
Alison Jackson creates images that engage directly with the world
of celebrities and the photographic language used across the media to
relay their images into our households. Her photographs and films seem
to offer evidence of celebrities engaged in private and intimate activities.
All is not as it seems however. Jackson employs celebrity lookalikes who
are then photographed in various scenarios created by the artist. The
aesthetic employed, using jaunty camera angles, irregular compositions
and a lack of sharp focus, cleverly ape the kind of photographs shot by
hidden cameras or snatched by the paparazzi. Reality and fantasy come
crashing together in these wonderfully compelling images.
Whilst once upon a time, the camera could apparently never lie, we now
live in an age where digital manipulation is standard and spots, blemishes
and excess curves are airbrushed away. We can no longer trust the integrity
of an image. Ironically, in Jackson's case, except for some magic from
hair, make-up and wardrobe, and the use of clever camera-work, her photographs
remain authentic and untouched.
Jackson draws on our obsession with celebrity and takes us through the
superficiality to a darker side. She cleverly draws on what we know about
these celebrities and takes us to a realm of possibility beyond that.
It is not quite true but it could be…
ENDS
To attend the press lunch or press preview or for further press information
please contact:
Kallaway
Anna Cusden
020 7221 7883
anna.cusden@kallaway.co.uk
New Art Gallery Walsall
Hollie Latham
01922 654402
lathamh@walsall.gov.uk
About The New Art Gallery Walsall
The New Art Gallery Walsall opened in February 2000 in the
heart of Walsall town centre. The £21 million world-class gallery
was made possible by £15.75 million Arts Lottery and commissioned
by Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council.
On permanent display is The Garman Ryan Collection which was donated to
the people of Walsall by Lady Kathleen Garman, widow of sculptor Sir Jacob
Epstein, in 1973. This unique collection is displayed in a series of intimate,
interconnecting rooms, each with a window, making a house for the collection
over the first and second floors of the gallery. The Gallery is also home
to the Discovery Gallery, an interactive space for everyone to look, touch,
explore, create, puzzle and play.
The temporary exhibition galleries on floors 3 and 4 are dedicated to
exhibiting a changing programme of exhibitions.
The gallery also offers a lively programme of activities and events for
all ages.
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