Stalker (2009) Chromogenic print (ed.1/5) 26 1/2 x 24 1/4 inches
DM favorite John Waters is having a new exhibition of his photographs and sculptures called Rear Projection at the Arthur Roger Gallery, 432 Julia Street, New Orleans, LA, from October 1st – 29th.
Mr. Waters will be present at the opening reception hosted by the gallery on Saturday, October 1st from 6 to 9 pm, and will lead a walk-through of his exhibition on Saturday, October 1st at 1 pm. Now how cool is that?
Rear Projection is a movie term for the process whereby a foreground action is combined with a background scene filmed earlier to give the impression the actors are on location when they are, in fact, working inside a studio. In John Waters’ latest work, this artificial and outdated visual effect is embraced and taken to extremes.
Using an insider’s bag of tricks and trade lingo, John Waters celebrates the excess of the movie industry. Word and image play permeate Waters’ work, and the movie industry and its various sleights of hand are a common target. Always ambitious and playful, some of the works are condensed narratives or “little movies” as Waters calls them. Waters wickedly juxtaposes images from films and television that he captured by photographing his television set as they play. His approach originated with a desire to retrieve stills from his own movies and developed into an appreciation for the overlooked and misrecalled.
Waters has said, “I’m concerned that people don’t remember movies; they remember stills that they’ve seen over and over in books so I try to photograph things in movies that you are never supposed to see. Really, it’s about writing and editing. I think up each of these pieces and then I have to go find the images that make a new narrative which many times is the opposite of or has nothing to do with what the director really began with.”
Check the Arthur Roger Gallery for details.
Lezzie (2009) 9 C-prints (ed.1/5) 4 x 54 inches
Old Chickens (2009) 9 C-prints (ed.1/5) 5 x 63 inches
Look Out! (2009) 21 C-prints (ed.5/5) 15 x 49 inches
John Jr. (2009) C print (ed.5/5) 32 1/2 x 26 inches
Rear Projection (2009) 9 C-prints (ed.5/5) 8 x 90 inches
Ham (2009) C-print (ed.1/5) 30 x 40 inches
Catholic Sin (2009) C-print (ed.2/5) 27 1/2 x 75 inches
Pay or Play (2009) 5 C-prints (ed.1/5) 4 1/2 x 35 inches