Andy Warhol's Superstars: Jon Davies curates The Review Issue 10

DEC 6 2015  –  ISSUE 10

^TheREVIEW

“When we acquire a public persona or identify with public bodies, we participate in ‘utopias of self-abstraction’ that enable us to feel as if we have transcended our particularity.” – Jonathan Flatley

Guest curator

JON DAVIES

Montreal-born, Toronto-based curator and writer. Author of Trash, co-editor of Little Joe Magazine Issue 5, curator of Nothing Special: Andy Warhol’s Star System @ TIFF
Photo credit: Alejandro Santiago

Over the past decade I’ve been thinking a lot about Andy Warhol and how his obsession with Hollywood shaped his own filmmaking. He was fascinated with stars and their larger-than-life presence, but also keenly understood that they were products of a vast illusion. If stardom was a matter of faith, then what was stopping the “beauties” and “talkers” in his own circle from becoming stars – or rather Superstars – if we believed they could? Let’s take a look at some of Warhol’s Screen Tests and photographs, and meet three contemporary artists who expand on iconic Warholian themes of self-fashioning and performance.

At The Factory

Andy & Susan

Between 1964–1966, Andy Warhol shot hundreds of Screen Tests at his studio, the Factory. Visitors were invited to sit down and face a 16mm camera, which would record a 100-foot roll of film. Whatever was going on around them, the sitter had to confront the camera’s gaze for three full minutes.

The resulting films act as an archive of the Factory’s social scene and document each individual wrestling with their self-presentation. The great writer and critic Susan Sontag posed for seven Screen Tests in late 1964, each a unique performance experiment. Luckily, Sontag brought a BBC camera crew with her, giving us a fantastic glimpse of Warhol (and her) in action.

Say Cheese!

in the archive

John & Andy

Here is another visit: John Waters in the vaults of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh with archivist Matt Wrbican – who co-curated the Andy Warhol: Stars of the Silver Screen exhibition at TIFF with his colleague Geralyn Huxley – opening up one of Warhol’s Time Capsules and sifting through some of his photos.

Starting in 1974, Warhol filled hundreds of boxes with all the flotsam and jetsam that passed through his hands; when full, each Time Capsule was sealed and sent to storage.

Hold on to Time

700 NIMES ROAD

Cathy & Liz

Photographs by Catherine Opie from 700 Nimes Road

One of Warhol’s muses was the fabulous Elizabeth Taylor. In 2011, Los Angeles-based photographer Catherine Opie spent six months documenting Taylor’s home at 700 Nimes Road both before and after she passed away. Never directly engaging with the screen legend, Opie nonetheless assembled a dazzling “portrait of her through her home,” from her décor and tchotchkes to her closets full of outfits.

"Utterly visible"

In the Details

Marilyn & Marilyn

The Art Gallery of Ontario is the final stop of a touring mid-career survey exhibition of American artist Anne Collier (on view until January 10). Her photograph Double Marilyn (2007) features the iconic Marilyn Monroe, another star in Warhol’s vast cosmology. The coolly pared-down composition – with two identical album covers simply placed side by side – also invokes Warhol’s art through the use of repetition.

"An Image-Saturated World"

BEHIND THE MASK

Gillian & Andy

Another kind of doubling is apparent in British artist Gillian Wearing’s photographic self-portraits wearing uncanny masks modeled both on family members and the famous, including her Me as Warhol in Drag with Scar (2010). Like Warhol, Wearing’s art practice draws on the inner lives, desires and fantasies of the people around her, mining the rich territory that separates our private and public selves.

Putting on Other People

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RE: ISSUE 09
The Right Ingredients

I swear that Guy Maddin [curator of Issue 09] would be fascinating if he simply read the ingredients list off of a can of condensed milk. Lovely, fascinating, touching, and hilarious column. Thanks so much!

— David M.

Thanks so much, David. We at The Review checked and discovered the tasty condensed dairy nectar you mention contains but two ingredients: sugar and milk. That would make an abrupt soliloquy. In my heart of hearts I'd much rather hear James Mason and Nina Simone in a voice-off that pitted the two vocal marvels against each other, both reading off the back of a Twizzler wrapper — much more movie apt, too!

— Guy Maddin

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