(13/03) Re.: Andy Warhol exhibit

In relation to my project I enjoyed Andy Warhol’s take on portraits using screen prints The most. I keep returning to faces as representational of dementia, after all they are our most base form of communication. Yes there is that intended look of mass manufacturing resulting in each one turning out ever so slightly different. Especially so when they are all lined up and stacked together so each minor detail is comparable. But I like that each one is ever so slightly off, that you wouldn’t recognise its different or ‘changed’ unless you were up close. Unless you knew it before. It could be used as a representational analogy for dementia and a process and medium I plan on exploring.

I thought this displaying was clever given the contents of the video and the TVs placement. The footage of Warhol in drag would get cut up or overplayed by static in waves and stripes, the windows directly behind mimicking the pattern, almost like the outside world had an impact on the footage.

The colouring changes also changed the tone of the footage, making it darker. What might have been unassuming was made distorted, his neutral expression unfazed by the shift. Again he was able to impact the audiences view of the piece by the chosen medium, which was only amplified by the Tate‘s decision of placement.

There were certain rooms of the Tate exhibit that were altered in order to heighten the art or replicate what the original setting for them would have been. This room as such being a replicate of hoe ‘The Factory’ was decked out. Whether the displaying effect was intentional or not, I like how the face from Warhols unblinking recording was warped in the mirrored surface. Also how the whole room was covered, each wall would provide a different perspective, a different alteration of the image. Playing with projectors and mirrors to distort the profile of someone is imagery I may return to depending on logistics and scale.