Nº of works: 50 b&w photographs.
Availability: From september 2014.
Contact: Ana Berruguete
Catalogue: published by La Fábrica
Touring to: Fotografiska Museet in Copenhagen, Museu de Arte Moderna in São Paulo and La Térmica in Malaga.
In the early eighties, Andy Warhol and Christopher Makos decided to do a project together. Sexually repressed both because of an intolerant Catholic education, they shared the same vision about life and the world and both took advantage of their relationship. Very influenced by Duchamp, Dali, Man Ray, all surrealist artists, and aware that some people saw Andy as a modern Dadaist, they decided to do a project based on the famous photograph of 1921 in which Duchamp portrayed Man Ray wearing a hat and a woman’s coat. The work was entitled Rose Selavy.
The project aims to explore our cultural references rather than simply trace the experience Rose Selavy created 60 years earlier. They decided to photograph the face and hair of Andy, who would be dressed in everyday clothes. They felt that the makeup and wig would create a sufficiently interesting contrast with the tie and jeans, which, in turn, mitigated the caricature of the feminine. The result: Eight wigs, two-day meeting, sixteen contact sheets, 349 shots. Was it a man dressed as a woman or otherwise? The aim was to convey sexual ambiguity and glancing about gender confusion and that nonconformist lifestyle and alternative began to emerge.
The exhibition includes a selection of 50 of these images. If we consider the emotional state of culture in today’s world, images of Lady Warhol, created in 1981, still speak eloquently to modern audiences
