Every face on Vanity Fair’s Hollywood covers 1995-2008

2009-2012
two-channel HD video installation with stereo sound
Infinite loop
Installation dimensions vary

Installation documentation from ‘The Art of Being a Fan’ The Block, QUT, 28-30 March 2012

Every face on Vanity Fair’s Hollywood covers 1995-2008 renders an ethnographic-like study of Hollywood celebrity as a cinematic experience. Viewers are presented with constantly mutating portraits that violently twist and shear into other faces, while an immersive soundscape echoes the turbulent painterly surface. Through technical processes of scaling, looping and image morphing; the work explores a positive affectual response to the seductive power of celebrity imagery. Conceptually, given Vanity Fair magazine’s prestigious stature, the work also performs an ethnographic-mapping of the popularity of Hollywood stars over time, while at the same time creating in-between, ‘mutant’ versions of their visages. The installation explores the potential for fan-based responses to pop culture to lead to artworks that enable a more critical response to the subjective and intersubjective dynamics of celebrity portraiture. Questions are raised about how these cultural forms impact pop culture fans, and their role in the mapping of culture and social experience.

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Conditions of Compromise and Failure (The Dickensian Aspect)

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A Stunning Experience