Wednesday, 8 May 2013

New Studio





Finally moved into the new Adelaide Central School of Art building!! It was originally an abandoned Victorian mental asylum before we got our hands on it and turned it into an asylum school for art students! 

I’m in love with the new site, suits me right down to the ground! It’s so rich with history and life and melancholy spookiness! And I especially love my new padded-cell-turned-studio-space!!  So unique, I bet we’re the only art school in the world with this sort of environment to study and be creative in! lucky me :D

Friday, 3 May 2013

9 Relics (a work in progress)





Many artists make work about celebrities and celebrity worship and It’s usually criticism the Western obsession with fame, image and consumerism. The visual connection between religious worship and celebrity worship is, I find, an over worked cliché.  Cultural icons as religious icons, celebrity idols as idols, Madonna as the Madonna .. they’re pretty obvious one- liners.

I understand the connections in practice and in imagery between religious worship and celebrity worship in our changing cultural landscape and media saturated world, yes, I’ve done my research and I get it.  But I still think they are superficial connections, fundamentally religion is something completely different. Religion is immensely powerful, it’s spiritualism- it seeks to answer life’s biggest questions of morals, of mortality, life after death, of the soul and the creation of humans and the universe. Of course there are connections, especially aesthetically, between celebrity worship and religious worship practices and paraphernalia because religious worship has been such a massive part of our culture for thousands of years. So I think to make the statement celebrity worship is a new religion is not a fully considered one. 

However there are branches of religious practice that is much closer, although by no means the same, as celebrity worship and the fan/idol relationship. Veneration for example- Veneration is not worship, it means to regard with respect and reverence. Relics, bowing, making the sign of the cross, statues, shrines and going on pilgrimages are examples of religious veneration. I chose to focus on relics and the idea of a relic in particular because they are beautiful, creepy, magical, morbid and completely and utterly captured my imagination!

We all know about celebrity ‘relics’, they get into the headlines a lot, weird celebrity stuff being auctioned off like chewing gum, half eaten sandwiches, worn underwear, towels, x-rays, altopsy tools, hair, tissues etc. but this baffles me.. even as a fan. I know a part of being a fan is feeling a human connection with the idol, that’s why it’s cool to see the outfits and stuff at Hard Rock Café ‘wow, they really wore this and here it is in front of me!’ but why would you want their discarded yucky stuff?

I contemplated- if I could have a celebrity relic from my Jedward, what would I want?  It certainly wouldn’t be chewed gum or underwear. In fact, I couldn’t really think of anything physical that I would want to have from them because I would find that weird. And more importantly, I think they would find it weird too and it doesn’t fulfill my fan or personal ambitions to be thought of as a weirdo by someone I hold in such high esteem.
So I metaphorically donned my ruby slippers and thought of myself as Dorothy asking the Wonderful Wizards of Jed for what I desired the most.  From Edward, I’d want to be entrusted with a secret. And from John.. that was more difficult I have to say. A song? A compliment? A confession? So I collected 2 identical empty scent bottles to store my relics in and took them away with me to Jedward.
 
 Now a thing I find fascinating about fandom is what can mean so much to one person, can mean absolutely nothing to another.  What’s precious, genius, awe-inspiring, beautiful and amazing to so many people is disregarded, stupid and weird to many more. My precious relics to venerate won’t physically exist; they will literally be just empty cheap little bottles. they will only be precious, sentimental and valuable to me.
So? Did I get the relics from John and Edward? Yes I did. I ended up just winging it and asking John for ‘I dunno, just say something nice.’ Poetic.
But I don’t have a stitch of proof, no photos, no letter of authenticity. As far as I’m aware nobody saw it happen and nobody knows what’s in the bottles except Edward, John and I. in fact, I actually don’t know what’s in Edward’s bottle, he didn’t tell me and I didn’t hear, it’s an actual real secret. 100% genuine jedwardsecrets.
Now what to do with the bottles?  I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it yet. To tell you the truth, I didn’t even think I would get them; I thought I’d be too embarrassed and chicken out. I told Edward I was going to build a sculpture around it. I might, or I might build some sort of elaborate relic holder. I’m taking inspiration from the beautiful glass vesselware sculptures of Andy Paiko but I don’t know. For the time being though I just like to have them and hold them. I think about the how warm they were when they gave them to me from their breath and they seem to have an electrical pulse in them. They’re sort of magic. I sometimes find myself subconsciously holding Edward’s bottle to my ear to try and hear the secret.. then I realize how ridiculous that is. Like when there’s a black-out and you search for candles and try to turn on the light to find them..

8 Fan Tattoo- Jedicated 2 U



I’m not going to get a Jedward tattoo. No fan tattoos and In fact I’m not going to get any tattoos at all. I’m scared of committing to anything too permanent, something I love today I might not love tomorrow, my passions and obsessions are fleeting, ever changing and transient. And I hate to admit it but I’m starting to regret stretching a 10mm hole in my ears when I was thirteen. I did know at the time this was going to be a permanent thing but I just though ‘fuck yeah, just means I’m gonna be an awesome cool dude my whole life!!’ but now I’ve grown and matured and I’m starting to wonder if being an awesome cool dude may not be such a high priority my whole life and having earlobes might be. Oh well.
Live and learn, eh.

Getting a fan tattoo is the ultimate sign of dedication. The devotion is there etched into your skin forever. It’s a fan’s loyalty at the highest degree; it literally becomes a part of them.  I’ve had the honor recently to be asked to design a Jedward fan tattoo for a fan, which I’m very excited about! I get the pleasure of having my artwork of fan devotion with the permanency, loyalty and commitment for a tattoo without having to have it on my own body.
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Something that makes John and Edward so good at being idols is their commitment and dedication to their fans. They’re so good to us. That bond between idol and fan that would usually just be a delusion is real, it’s there. They don’t see us as just fans, they see us as people, they’re never condescending or dismissive, they're humble and gracious. They go out of their way for us and they honestly care about us. It’s beautiful, it’s moving and it's unique.


The tattoo aesthetic goes back to my first fan community/fandom experiences of being involved with the local hardcore/metal/punk scene as a teenager. But it wasn’t a scene I really felt comfortably apart of or enjoyed. I liked the look, the hair, being a public nuisance, the live music and supporting local bands but it seemed to be for most about underage drinking, drugs, outdoor sex, bitching, rivalries, causing as much drama as humanly possible and Myspace pages. But I have to confess the alternative/ tattooed aesthetic is still something I enjoy. I still consider every now and again becoming a tattoo apprentice ..  

This drawing (a magazine scan with blue ink intervention), is basically a role reversal of fan and idol, imagining what it would look like for Jedward to show their dedication and loyalty to us by getting fan tattoos of fans. And since there’s a hell of a lot of fans, the tattoos would therefore completely cover their bodies. It’s a very big nudge to the work of Dr. Lakra and the Tumblr trend of Photoshopping tattoos, piercings and stretched ears onto Disney characters. The names are fans I had in my Twitter interactions and I filled in gaps with classic tattoo motifs and Jedward fandom in-jokes and references. And you know, I really quite like it. Not just for the tattoo aesthetic but I think the blue line on their white skin looks so elegant, like blue and white china, and I think there’s so much more to expand on with this idea.