Garance just wrote about going to see an exhibition of Guy Bourdin’s videos. Guy is one of my favourite photographers, so I thought I’d take the opportunity of being reminded of him to put up one of my favourites of his photos. It always surprises me how fresh his photographs look. This one seems to be telling a story that’s half Thelma and Louise, half Max Headroom. I love the retro-futuristic vibe of the sunglasses.

This was shot for Vogue, but I sadly don’t know any more information about when where who why how. It was a surprisingly hard picture to track down. His pictures are splayed all over web, but they tend to be the more shock-to-the-gut nekkid-lady style photos he is more known for. It’s also really really hard to google. Result is, alas, no information. I’m guessing Vogue Paris, late  1980s? Regardless, a really awesome picture. I want to hang out with these girls. Hand over the sunglasses, and we’ll see what trouble we can get ourselves into.

[via]

In realtà non sono molto informato su questo fotografo, ma qualche parola la voglio dire lo stesso.

Nato nel 1928 è stato un fotografo rivoluzionario degli anni 70-80, sapeva ricreare un’ atmosfera e delle situazioni fantasiose ed eccentriche che l’ hanno differenziato dalla massa portandolo ad essere uno dei migliori fotografi di moda e pubblicità di quel periodo; ha lavorato con molte marche stilose di tutto il mondo, in particolare scattando per molte pubblicità di scarpe.

Alcune sue opere.

© Guy Bourdin

© Guy Bourdin

© Guy Bourdin

www.guybourdin.org

Guy bourdin

http://www.guybourdin.org/

http://dazeddigital.com/ArtsAndCulture/article/5378/1/Guy_Bourdin_Ses_Films

;}}}}}}

so beautiful

Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche rend hommage au célèbre photographe Guy Bourdin.

Artiste légendaire et figure incontournable de la photographie de mode sur la scène internationale, l’exposition dévoile ses films personnels pour la première fois. A travers une mise en scène sombre et mystérieuse magnifiant son travail, un parcours visuel inédit retrace sa fascinante quête esthétique et émotionnelle. Emblématique du glamour et de la beauté parfaite, l’oeuvre de Guy Bourdin est envisagée sous une perspective nouvelle, les images fonctionnant en associations libres, au plus près des pensées du maître. Magistrale, cette installation offre une occasion unique de comprendre ce qui a fait de Guy Bourdin l’un des photographes les plus influents du XXIè siècle.
Moteur !

Exposition du 18 septembre au 31 octobre – Verrière, 2ème étage

From www.lebonmarche.com

Image from www.artnet.com

Book your room at www.hotelparismontparnasse.com

Semana passada, publiquei aqui um portfólio do falecido fotógrafo francês Guy Bourdin. Hoje mostro um pouco de sua influência cultural. Qualquer fotografia de moda que aposte em cores saturadas, objetificação de partes do corpo humano, glamour misturado a bizarrice, aura chique de lesbianismo ou a mulher como um corpo inanimado deve muito a Guy Bourdin. Ele é fonte de inspiração de incontáveis artistas. Aqui mostro alguns exemplos mais óbvios de sua influência.

A campanha que o fotógrafo Terry Richardson fez para os óculos escuros de Tom Ford (à direita) parece inspirada em foto (à esquerda) de Guy Bourdin.

Terry Richardson também parece ter pensado muito em Bourdin (esq.) ao criar a campanha da nova frangrância de Tom Ford (dir.)

A capa de novembro passado da Vogue francesa, com Vanessa Paradis (dir.) poderia ter sido feita por Bourdin (esq.), mas foi criação da dupla Mert Alas e Marcus Piggot, dois seguidores do francês.

Uma foto de Bourdin (esq.), outra de David Lachapelle (dir.) – esta mostrando Thora Birch.

Lachapelle é um dos fotógrafos mais influenciados por Bourdin. Esta foto sua do ator Matt Dillon (dir.) lembra muito esta outra de Bourdin (esq.).

Até em sua campanha para a vodka Skyy (abaixo), Lachapelle remeteu a Bourdin (abaixo).

No clipe de Hollywood (dir.), Madonna faz várias referências à obra de Bourdin (esq.)

Hoje fomos na exposição “A message for you” do fotógrafo francês Guy Bourdin (1928 – 1991) no Mube

Esse fotógrafo fez vários trabalhos ligados à moda: tanto fotos de editoriais para a Vogue francesa como para campanhas publicitárias. As fotos são sensuais e muitas são meio mórbidas. E o legal olhar é que foram tiradas entre os anos 60 e 80 – super vanguarda.

programinha legal, mas nada demais!

Model was posing for photographer Zach Hyman.
Police arrested a woman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for stripping naked in the middle of the Arms and Armour exhibit.
The model was posing yesterday for photographer Zach Hyman who has gained recent notoriety for his photos of nude models posing at New York landmarks, snapping shots of naked New Yorkers (all volunteers) from Times Square to Chinatown for his portrait series.
Hyman gives himself just 30 seconds to take 10 shots of nude models with his Hasselblad 500 C/M film camera and conducts his shoots in all natural light. The pictures typically can sell for anywhere from $2,000 to $9,500.
The 30 seconds wasn’t enough time as police busted up the shoot — an event, which was captured exclusively by a camera rolling for NBCNewYork.
The model, KC Neill, 26, was charged with public lewdness.
Earlier this week, Hyman said his photo shoots require more precautions than most. Wary of arrest, he keeps bail money handy, takes along a lookout for police and keeps his lawyer on speed dial. Up until today he’s never had to use the bail money.
It was on his mind during his last shoot in Times Square.
“I was wholly prepared to be arrested, but somehow managed to walk away with the image and no cuffs,” Hyman said of that shoot.
Hyman — who says he’s inspired by Helmut Newton, David LaChapelle, and Guy Bourdin — wasn’t that lucky this time. Sometime you have to suffer for your heart.
Get more information on Hyman’s Web site.

Entre os anos 50 e 80, o fotógrafo francês Guy Bourdin revolucionou a fotografia de moda, elevando-a ao patamar de arte, com suas cores saturadas, enquadramentos atípicos, composições surrealistas, temáticas bizarras, sexualidade ousada e olhar nada óbvio sobre o produto que se pretendia vender. Por tudo isso, Bourdin foi um dos fotógrafos mais influentes de seu tempo. No entanto, seu nome nunca foi tão difundido quanto os de outros colegas de ofício, talvez porque Bourdin boicotava seu próprio legado, recusando todo e qualquer convite para exposição de sua obra ou compilação de seus trabalhos em livro. Bourdin trabalhava para revistas, sobretudo a Vogue francesa, e só permitia que suas fotos fossem apreciadas no contexto das publicações para as quais tinham sido feitas. Ele sequer armazenava suas fotos adequadamente, não se preocupava com isso. Somente após sua morte, em 1991, que sua obra começou a rodar o mundo em exposições. Atualmente, há uma grande retrospectiva de seu trabalho no Museu Brasileiro da Escultura (MuBe), em São Paulo, até dia 31/8. Lá é possível ver como os cliques de Guy Bourdin são incrivelmente atuais.

O MuBE recebe até o próximo domingo, de graça, a exposição “Message to You”, com trabalhos retrospectivos do fotógrafo francês Guy Bourdin (1928 – 1991).

E você não deveria perdê-la: com seu raro talento para contar histórias com uma só imagem e ainda “vender o produto” para o qual clicava, misturando o sádico e o sexy, Bourdin não entrou para a história da fotografia, da publicidade e do estilo contemporâneos à toa.

Vivemos hoje sob a paranóia do “novo”, do “subversivo” e do “único” para explicar quem nós somos – e quem as marcas, os nossos entes sub-humanos, são. Mas o mundo não começou ontem… E ficam as perguntas: qual cliente aceitaria vender seus sapatos com cadáveres mais de 30 anos após estas fotos? E qual fotógrafo daria esta sugestão com confiança suficiente para ganhar o job?

Alisson Avila (gracias Esper & August pelo videosuporte…)

The cover of Vogue Brazil  August has a major  spelling error on its cover. Guy Bourdin, the famous French fashion photographer , name was misspelled to Guy Bourdain! Someone at Vogue Brazil is definitely getting fired for this!

+ A Message For You, by Guy Bourdin @ MuBE – São Paulo (15th August – 31st August) +

         Tras la exposición inédita de Londres ahora llega al Museu Brasileiro da Escultura de São Paulo una restropectiva de 177 imágenes (!) de Guy Bourdin que no puedes perderte si te encuentras por aquellas latitudes durantes los próximos diez días.

+++++

       After the ‘unseen’ exhibition in London now it is at the Museu Brasileiro da Escultura in São Paulo where you can enjoy a Guy Bourdin’s 177 images (!) retrospective you can’t definitely miss if you are around there in the next ten days.

Guy Bourdin (1928 – 1991) foi um dos mais conhecidos fotógrafos de moda e publicidade da segunda metade do século 20. Ele partilhada Helmut Newton gosto pela controvérsia e estilização, mas Bourdin ousado em sua narrativa usava o poder das suas imagens excedendo os limites da convencional fotografia publicitária. Estilhaçando expectativas e questionando fronteiras, que criaram as condições para um novo tipo de moda fotografia. Bourdin trabalhou para Vogue e Harper’s Bazaar, e disparou para campanhas de publicidade Chanel, Issey Miyake, Emanuel Ungaro, Gianni Versace, Loewe, Pentax e Bloomingdale’s.  Teve Man Ray, Buñuel e Magritte como influências.

De 14 e 31 de agosto no Mube em São Paulo, confira o universo em 177 trabalhos, incluindo fotografias, campanhas, filmes e curtas-editoriais de moda em movimento.

Por Marcela Goldstein

A Oi, com o apoio do Oi Futuro, Instituto de Responsabilidade Social da companhia, apresenta uma mostra fotográfica que será exibida em São Paulo, no MuBE, e foi montada especialmente para o projeto Iguatemi Photo Series, com curadoria de Chico Lowndes. Depois do sucesso de público e crítica das mostras Heaven to Hell – Belezas e Desastres (David LaChapelle) e Chop off their heads (Rankin), o projeto chega a sua terceira edição com mais um grande fotógrafo que retrata a moda inserida no fascinante universo das artes visuais.

A apimentada mostra inédita do fotógrafo que trabalhou por mais de 30 anos para a Vogue francesa e influenciou gerações de fotógrafos e cineastas aterrissa em São Paulo, com polaróides, fotografias de moda, filmes e editoriais em movimento produzidos entre 1950 e o início dos anos 1990.

De 14 a 31 de agosto no MuBE em São Paulo

Imagens publicadas em revistas de moda internacionais, fotografias inéditas, campanhas de grifes famosas, curtas-metragens e os primeiros editoriais em movimento da história fazem parte da exposição A message for you, de Guy Bourdin, apresentada ao público brasileiro pelo projeto Iguatemi Photo Series, com curadoria de Chico Lowndes e direção executiva de Guili Alves de Lima, no MuBE (Museu Brasileiro da Escultura), em São Paulo, entre 14 e 31 de agosto de 2009.

Com especial talento artístico e olhar hedonista, o francês Guy Bourdin (1928-1991), um observador da cultura, delineou seu trabalho como fotógrafo em imagens repletas de contrastes de cores e de uma tensão erótica entre os efêmeros da moda, da morte e da própria fotografia. Dramáticos e intensos, os cliques de Bourdin flertam com o universo da estranheza, da beleza e do sarcasmo, quebrando com todas as regras e saindo do lugar-comum das campanhas comerciais de moda. A exposição A message for you, que conta com 177 trabalhos do artista, remonta o universo surrealista de sua obra e leva o espectador a uma visita por seu mundo de fantasia, luxo, glamour, prazer, violência, perigo e suspense – tudo isso apimentado com uma boa carga de nudez e de erotismo, em um processo experimental que redefiniria a estética da fotografia de moda até os dias de hoje. Cada imagem da mostra é uma narrativa complexa, um objeto da arte de vanguarda que questiona os limites de sua época.

Guy Bourdin – uma curta biografia

Nascido em 1928, Bourdin passou boa parte de sua juventude vivendo o pós-guerra em Paris. Em 1954, entrou para a Vogue francesa, onde trabalhou por mais de 30 anos. Nos anos 1970, o fotógrafo já aparecia nas páginas das principais revistas de moda do mundo. Trabalhou também para a Harper´s Bazaar e fotografou campanhas publicitárias para as marcas Chanel, Issey Miyake, Emanuel Ungaro, Gianni Versace, Loewe, Pentax e para a loja de departamentos Bloomingdale´s. Era colega de Helmut Newton, foi pupilo de Man Ray e influenciado pelos surrealistas Magritte, Balthus e Buñuel. Guy Bourdin inspirou trabalhos de artistas como o fotógrafo David La Chapelle e o cineasta David Lynch. Faleceu em 1991.

Visitação:  Até 31 de agosto – de segunda a domingo, das 10 às 19 horas

MuBE (Museu Brasileiro da Escultura) – Av. Europa, 218, Jardim Europa,  11.3081-8611

Guy Bourdin for Charles Jourdan

Shoes are a weakness I cannot hide. Anyone who knows me is aware of my shoe addiction. Many of my shoes are kept on bookshelves in my living room. They are like art pieces, a piece of architecture.

I am a big fan of vintage shoes and have always been so. That is how I had my first encounter with the name Charles Jourdan. I have a couple of vintage pairs but when I tried to find them in the shops around Europe I realised they were not available. Worse, when I did find some, they were far from the glamorous vintage pairs I owned.

Later when I coincidentally met the ex vice-president of Charles Jourdan, she shed some light on why the company had moved from being a successful glamorous shoe brand into a granny, elastic bands and ‘comfortable’ brand. Jennifer Loss tells me after the 80’s the company directors thought the way forward was to make affordable and comfortable shoes, which might sound sensible but was actually translated into horrible, horrible shoes !

Big in the 60’s and 70’s, Charles Jourdan lost its allure in the 80’s and went quiet until now. In the 70’s the collaborations with famous voyeuristic photographer Guy Bourdin, made both famous. Guy was starting a career and his photography of the beautiful shoes were ground breaking and still used as inspiration for the best fashion photographers in the world. His 1967 campaign for Charles Jourdan brought in a new light into the luxury fetishist shoe market.

This October at Paris Fashion Week, the label will relaunch with shoe designer Alexandra Neel. Neel was previously the designer responsible for the Balenciaga and Celine shoes. “I try to do something very different for stiletto addicts who are looking for something other than the usual,” she said to WWD. This is just what we have been waiting for !!!

Charles Jourdan, will be available from SS10.

Below there is more of the brilliant photography from Bourdin for Charles Jourdan. Extremely inspiring !

Rosane Ribeiro

Bourdin for Jourdan

Bourdin for Charles Jourdan

Bourdin for Charles Jourdan

]]> http://moodboardproject.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/whos-that-guy/ Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:11:51 +0000 moodboardproject http://moodboardproject.wordpress.com/2009/08/18/whos-that-guy/

Finally! Solid fashion news…’coz honestly, we ain’t feelin’ all the model gossip junk that’s been circulating around lately. I mean, who cares if Gisele wants 4-5 babies, really! (Just so you know, we’re updated but we’d rather spare you ) 

In any case, we stumbled upon this news of Guy Bourdin’s upcoming exhibition at The Bon Marché department store in Paris (September 18-October 29). The late French photographer is known for his infusion of surrealist elements into fashion photography (Chanel, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue). We like his irreverent, nonchalant approach to fashion, and even more so after we found out that he once turned down the Grand Prix National de la Photographie Award from the French Ministry of Culture. He’s good and he knows it!!!

Well, anyway, WWD reports that the exhibition, “Guy Bourdin, Ses Films revisits his short films produced between the Sixties and Eighties. The clips — ranging from studio shoots to favorite locations, “works in progress” to personal moments — will be projected on floating screens in darkrooms, mimicking the surrealism Bourdin captured “by accident” for his fashion-world campaigns.”

Photo: hintmag.com, artnet.com

Um mundo sem Photoshop era um mundo real. Vale a pena conferir.

GUY BOURDIN: um dos responsáveis pela revolução no mundo da imagem nas décadas de 70 e 80. 

Igautemi Photo Series
15 a 31 agosto
MUBE Av. Europa, 218
Segunda a Domingo

FM.

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Quelques photos que j’ai prises sur la croisette à Cannes, un des lieux de l’expo du festival de photo de mode

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Guy Bourdin / Marcelo Benfield

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Festival International de la Photographie de Mode 2009, 7éme édition

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70 photographes et hommage à Guy Bourdin

Du 15 juin au 28 août 2009

En extérieur dans la ville de Cannes (Roseraie du port Canto, Esplanade Macé, Croisette, Rue d’Antibes), Palm Beach Casino, Office du Tourisme de Cannes, Hôtel Martinez, Hôtel Garden Beach, Juan-les-Pins

Foto: Guy Bourdin

Guy Bourdin (1928 – 1991) foi um dos mais conhecidos fotógrafos de moda e publicidade da segunda metade do século 20. Ele partilhada Helmut Newton gosto pela controvérsia e estilização, mas Bourdin ousado em sua narrativa usava o poder das suas imagens excedendo os limites da convencional fotografia publicitária. Estilhaçando expectativas e questionando fronteiras, que criaram as condições para um novo tipo de moda fotografia. Bourdin trabalhou para Vogue e Harper’s Bazaar, e disparou para campanhas de publicidade Chanel, Issey Miyake, Emanuel Ungaro, Gianni Versace, Loewe, Pentax e Bloomingdale’s.  Teve Man Ray, Buñuel e Magritte como influências.

De 14 e 31 de agosto no Mube em São Paulo, confira o universo em 177 trabalhos, incluindo fotografias, campanhas, filmes e curtas-editoriais de moda em movimento.

Surreais, eróticas, hedonistas, fantasiosas, Bourdin ficou famoso por imprimir intensidade, luxo, glamour, prazer, suspense e violência nas imagens que criava.

av. Europa, 218 – São Paulo, SP
De segunda a domingo, das 10h às 19h. De 15 a 31 de agosto
Grátis

Site oficial aqui.

Site do fotógrafo aqui.

Abraços!

Evandro Salgado Fotografia

www.evandrosalgado.com

Copyright Luz mais Sombra Fotografia. Todos os direitos reservados. É proibida a reprodução do conteúdo desta página em qualquer meio de comunicação, eletrônico ou impresso, sem autorização escrita da Luz mais Sombra Fotografia.

título auto explicativo!

Annie Leibovitz

Jagger by David Bailey

Guy Bourdin

Steichen

Bruce Weber

porque ter referencias na vida É TUDO.

………………….. ………………….. ………………..Soundtrack New Order/Blue Monday

Somethings are
Better absorbed
Then written about
Still your
Sorrow is within
Your
Longing for
Presence
Without
Presence
Blindly submitting
To a lack of
presence 

Picture by Guy Bourdin

A take on Venice Biennale 2009

Traditionally artists have paved the way with avante-garde and postmodern visuals and ideas- with the pop media (music videos, fashion shoots, etc.) later re-serving it up to the mass public in a diluted form. This seems like the natural order of things- for all Art’s claims of being ‘high-brow,’ it should follow that ‘low-brow’ pop culture will follow Art in its trail blazing intellectual and inquisitive lead. In 2003, for example, Madonna’s ‘Hollywood’ video was essentially moving reincarnations of Guy Bourdin’s photographs (she was later sued by the Bourdin estate for this ‘homage’). On exploring the 53rd Venice Biennale, however, one couldn’t help but experience the déjà vu one gets when landing on the unused set of one of your favourite music videos. What are we talking about? The uncanny, and seemingly unintentional, resemblance certain installations in the Biennale had to rather famous music videos from the 80s, 90s and 00s.

France’s pavilion in the Giardini exhibited an installation, ‘Le Grande Soir’ (2009), by Claude Lévêque. An entirely silver jail; silver metal bars, and walls covered in silver glitter with silver lamé flags blowing about at the end of each corridor. Maybe France doesn’t receive Gwen Stefani videos, or maybe Lévêque (born in 1953) just hasn’t seen them yet, but in January 2007 Stefani released a single titled ‘The Sweet Escape.’ Besides being a worldwide hit, the video was directed by super-director Joseph Kahn (responsible for Britney’s ‘Toxic’ and ‘Womanizer,’ as well as the Pussycat Dolls ‘When I Grow Up’) and features Stefani pondering how to escape from a jail entirely made out of gold. As unavoidable as the video and song were (being top 5 in the USA and most of Europe, reaching number 4 in France), in late 2007 Stefani’s ‘Sweet Escape’ world tour opened with her posing in the gold jail in a recreation of the video (pyrotechnics moving it to the centre stage). Viewing ‘Le Grande Soir’ was like exploring an empty silver version of the jail set of ‘The Sweet Escape,’ except, vitally, without any entertainment from a world famous popstar. Ironically, as the Biennale talks about ‘Making Worlds,’ the empty jail was a stark contrast to the Stefani video where we enter an exhaustively constructed golden-Gwen world (with not just a singular jail, but also a hotel and a car chase through Gwen’s city where she is both princess and convict). Here everything is gold-plated and Stefani-branded; from keys, clothes hangers, wallpaper, clocks, cups, plates, skyscrapers, cars, etc. In comparison to ‘The Sweet Escape’s’ beautiful visuals, and engaging and ridiculous narrative, ‘Le Grande Soir’ rang quite hollow. How is it possible for no-one around the artist to draw the glaring comparison with Gwen Stefani’s video? Has the art world become so insulated it is impermeable to the constant stream of pop culture produced?

It seems this might be likely as the Australian pavilion exhibits video work by Shaun Gladwell that is not unfamiliar. ‘Interceptor Surf: Daydream Mine Road’ (2009) shows a man standing on top of a car driving through a bleak desert, at a slow quiet pace. Another video shows the man examining roadkill. Now, I’m not sure what you were doing in 1998, but 2.5million people were buying an album by The Cardigans titled ‘Gran Turismo’ (and in 1996 maybe the same 2.5million people were buying their previous album), as the world listened to the album’s lead single ‘My Favourite Game.’ The video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund (who is also responsible for Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’ and ‘Music’) and featured Nina, the lead singer, driving through a desert in a red convertible with a rock on the accelerator. References to 1991’s ‘Thelma & Louise’ were clear as Nina terrorizes the country with her angry feminism as she pushes cars off the road and knocks over innocent bystanders. The video caused so much controversy that Åkerlund filmed four different endings of the clip (with different degrees of death and destruction) and six different edits of the car crashes during the clip in an effort to pass censorships in various countries. So more than a decade later I was surprised to see Nina’s ending suicide-posture (her standing on the roof of the car while a van filled with the band members crashes into her) re-created in this rather eventless film of Gladwell’s. His character examining animal roadkill rather pales in significance and interest compared to Nina turning herself into roadkill (perhaps less poetically than Thelma & Louise did back in 1991). With everyone from the Spice Girls in ‘Say You’ll Be There’ tying a man to their roof in the desert (1996), and Kelis in ‘Young Fresh N New’ rolling through the desert in a monster-truck filled with runaways (2001)- cars in the desert is something of a cliché at this stage, surely? So what makes Gladwell’s film worthy of a whole pavilion, especially as it is lacking any sense of its countless references and is rather boring in comparison to its aggressive pop female counterparts. Ironically, as commercial in intent as the aforementioned music videos are it is interesting to note how ‘controversial’ they are in relation to Gladwell’s work, who does nothing with the freedom uncommercial ‘art’ forum provided to him.

Heading over to the Arsenale we are treated to a few more empty sets/installations. Spencer Finch’s light sculpture of ‘60 light fixtures and 255 bulbs’ hanging from the ceiling is a reminder of a video from the year 2000, directed by Francis Lawrence (responsible for everything from Britney’s ‘Slave 4 U’ & ‘Circus,’ to Justin Timberlake’s ‘Cry Me A River,’ to Destiny’s Child’s ‘Independent Women’) by Melanie C & Lisa Left-Eye Lopez (of TLC) titled ‘Never Be The Same Again.’ The song of which sold 400,000 copies in the UK alone (where it was also number 1), was from an album that sold almost 4million worldwide. The video, impossible to escape as it rode the tidal wave of the Spice Girls monster, features Melanie C lying under a ceiling of dangling lightbulbs that flash on and off. The fact that the bulbs flash already makes it infinitely more entertaining than Finch’s static sculpture, but the fact that what is, essentially, a lighting prop in a commercial music video being presented as art is rather offensive to the younger viewer who will have no doubt seen it on MTV or youtube (where it has over 1,700,000 views) at some point.

Paul Chan’s ‘Sade for Sade’s Sake’ (2008-2009) depicts computer-generated people fucking and wanking (to be as crude as the piece is) and ‘engaging in religious activities.’ Apparently these are “the experiences we have yet to fully understand through conscious thought; sex enmeshed with freedom, violence wrapped up with reason, art entangled in it all.” The juttery shadow graphics resemble an ungraceful and cheap version of Madonna in ‘Express Yourself (1989),’ where her silhouette postures sexually in her infamous cone bra. ‘Express Yourself’ has been hailed as the greatest music video of all time by Slant magazine for its feminist ideology and, while that might be an exaggeration, it does hint at how iconic the video has been in terms of pop culture. Like most of Madonna’s work, she says its premise is essentially “pussy rules the world.” What is the point of being overblown if it is not doing so in equally excessive style? Though Paul Chan’s video may reference ‘Express Yourself’ it doesn’t seem to have any ideology to grapple with- certainly not a statement as strong as Madonna’s. In fact, it comes across as confused and immature as its accompanying overblown written statement.

Nicola Bolla’s ‘Orpheus’s Dream’ (2009) displayed an empty stage of diamonté encrusted microphone stands and a diamonté unicorn. It felt like the end of a pop concert; the lights were up and nobody was performing. Perhaps this is the point: a vapid statement on the vacuous nature of pop entertainment. Perhaps it is a knowing in-joke as unicorns are the mascots of the most airy and vacuous (notably Mariah Carey in ‘Touch My Body’- one of youtubes most watched videos with over 26,000,000 views). It’s interesting to note that pop’s most capitalist group the Spice Girls (who still hold a world-record for the Most Endorsement Deals in one year- it’s 25 if you are wondering) had customized diamonté microphones (you know; pink for Baby, leopard print for Scary, etc.) made for their 2008 Return of the Spice Girls tour (directed by Jamie King, who also directed Madonna’s ‘Sticky & Swet tour’ which is the highest grossing tour by a female artist), which saw them perform to about 700,000 people in the USA and Europe (count that at £125 a ticket). Naturally, Nicola Bolla would not be aware of this- not everyone is a pop fanatic, of course. However, as this unicorn and diamonté stage is presented to me- seemingly unaware of itself and its vacuity- its claim as an aesthetically pleasing object is unquestionable, yet its claim as ‘art,’ or even as a piece of communication (and surely an artist should be able to communicate something of note? Surely that’s what sets an artist apart from a set designer?) is questionable. Watching Mariah prance around in ‘Touch My Body,’ dripping in self-referential irony and humour, and watching the Spice Girls perform their 90s-defining hits, shamelessly referencing every part of their career (the good and ugly), it is hard to see why Bolla expects the viewer to watch this empty stage when we could be entertained by diamonté microphones in use instead?

Ivan Navarro’s ‘Death Row’ (2006) is a beautifully installed series of coloured neon doors, their reflection extending to infinity. Perhaps it is too much to ask an artist to try something new, but the art of using neons to create an illusion of space have been used excessively in music videos for years. In 1998, Melanie B & Missy Elliot caper about in an entire world of neon-lines (‘I Want You Back,’ UK number 1), in 2002 Holly Valance dances in a digitally constructed neon space in ‘Kiss Kiss’ (which was number 1 in the Uk & Australia with 390,000 copies sold- mainly due to the controversy of the video that depicts Valance naked, with vital parts covered by strategically placed light flares), and they are still at it- in 2007 Beyoncé’s ‘Freakum Dress’ (directed by Jay Kay, of Lady Gaga’s ‘Pokerface’) shows Beyoncé fixing her hair in a neon mirror and is surrounded by neon-constructed doors, catwalks and podiums.

Jonas Åkerlund recently directed Lady Gaga’s mini-film ‘Paparazzi.’ Weighing in at almost 7minutes it is an adventurous undertaking for a music video where the financial return on a single release is becoming increasingly void. The video, a psychotically camp visual overload of fashion and murder, is dripping in its references (most overtly to Guy Bourdin, again) and looks to continue Lady Gaga’s all-encompassing conquering of popculture. Can we expect to see it in a diluted, slowed down or even static, form at the Biennale 2021- just as we did with Åkerlund’s ‘My Favourite Game’ 11 years on? Perhaps as Lady Gaga herself proclaims, “Pop music will never be low-brow.”

Written by Kevin Gaffney for Artisit?
www.kevin-gaffney.com

Video Links
Claude Lévêque “Le Grande Soir”
Gwen Stefani “The Sweet Escape” 
The Cardigans “My Favourite Game”
Kelis “Young Fresh n New”
“Thelma & Louise”
Spice Girls “Say You’ll Be There”
Melanie C & Lisa ‘Left-Eye’ Lopez “Never Be The Same Again”
Madonna “Express Yourself”
Melanie B & Missy Elliot “I Want You Back”
Holly Valance “Kiss Kiss”
Beyoncé ”Freakum Dress”
Lady Gaga “Paparazzi”

Photos/ Screengrabs