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Stardust
Boogie Woogie |
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| exhibition
view, Stardust Boogie Woogie, works
by Marcela Iriarte, (l), Bob and Roberta Smith(c) Christian de Lutz (r) and Jane Mulfinger (floor) |
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Stardust Boogie Woogie When Andy Warhol declared that everyone would be famous for 15 minutes, he probably didn't realized how true that was going to be. In a very short time the media industry has made it incredibly easy for people to become famous. It is no longer necessary to have a particular talent, nowadays absolutely any one who is prepared by whatever means to be entertaining, can become a 'celebrity'. Then mass media, along with popular culture, will see that celebrities are consumed as spectacle giving them a package of meanings that has nothing to do with their intrinsic value. This is particularly true today in Western countries where the boundaries between stars and fans have dissolved: a celebrity is such, as long as fan clubs, gossip columns and TV reality shows say so. It all started with the personality cult as advanced by the Soviet regime. At last the leader was no longer somebody anointed by divine rights, but somebody who was the icon of ordinary people. The Soviet leaders and popular heroes were, in a way, the other side of the coin of the Hollywood star system - both embodied dreams of a better life. To
explore the issues of celebrity cult and modern heroes and to put
them in a multifaceted international context, the exhibition Stardust
Boogie Woogie has brought together 7 artists from different countries
and backgrounds. Their work is around the notion of stardom and
its related lifestyle (Jessica Voorsanger, Jane Mulfinger, Marcela
Iriarte), of socialist personality cults (Christian de Lutz, Tania
Antoshina) and of popular culture (Bob & Roberta Smith, Mo Foster). Tania Antoshina is one of the most significant Russian artists since perestroika. Her work was exhibited in the prominent After the Wall' exhibition at the Moderna Museet,Stockholm and Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, and in the 2007 Moscow Biennale. The work explores the role of women and artists in society and in art history. Her latest collages and ceramic wall pieces focus on Yuri Gagarin as the everlasting Soviet star. Antoshina lives and works in Moscow. Mo Foster is a writer and journalist. Her provocative plays, 'menopausal punk' poems and the novel 'A Blues for Shindig' have been critically acclaimed. The latter follows the life and loves of a louche London girl in the seedy blues clubs of 1950s Soho. Marcela Iriarte's collages and assemblages display a fascination with cinema and its stars. Her latest works are based on Egyptian cinema posters. Iriarte lives and works in Paris. Christian de Lutz works with photography, video and new media. Many of his works 're-use' photographs that he took in the 1990s as a journalist, and deal with the nexus of history, technology and the reception of images. He is currently based in Berlin. Jane Mulfinger's installations address the relationship between architecture, artifacts and memory. Her most recent work investigates memory as a collective phenomenon and its effect on popular culture. She is currently working on the significance of the celebrity Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, site of Robert Kennedy's assassination. Mulfinger lives and works in California. Bob & Roberta Smith's trademark slogans in brightly coloured lettering appropriate the language of folk, punk and the alternative protest movements to personalize political sloganeering. Recent exhibitions include Altermodern at Tate Britain (2009), and Fourth Plinth (National Gallery). Jessica
Voorsanger explores the concept of 'celebrity' in popular culture
and the condition of 'being a fan'. Her performances and installations
often blur the boundaries between real life and art. Voorsanger
lives and works in London. |
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