I recently saw Emily Prince's 'American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan (But Not Including the Wounded, Nor the Iraqis, Nor the Afghans)'. The artists has drawn a small picture of every soldier killed in battle, and will continue to do so until the wars are over. This got me thinking...these days we have become so celebrity obsessed that the events going on in the lives of our famous 'friends' overshadow the fact that men and women are being killed in battle. It makes me sad that the fact Kerry Katona is pregnant with her 5th baby(or not...) receives as much, if not more attention than the fact there are people being killed in a war.
My work is a response to what Emily Prince is doing, and is a comment on the importance that celebrities have in our culture...even despite the other, far more important things going on.
Check out Emily Prince's work here: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/artpages/emily_prince_american_installation.htm
Hey Jamie,
ReplyDeleteThis is brilliant! A really interesting idea and as ever the pictures are great. As someone whose stick men have broken limbs I'm always impressed by anyone who can draw anything at all - never mind someone who can do it as well as this, and do one every day no less!
Anyway, if you're interested in reading more about this subject then there's loads of stuff out there that I can send your way since it;s exactly the area I'm working in, especially the idea of celebrities as "friends".
On a basic level, I think the idea of celebrity and friendship, or some level of intimacy any way, is conditioned by the fact that we feel an increasing sense of entitlement to the celebrity image. The general public are more directly responsible than ever before for the fame of several of the people you mention here. After all, we voted for people like Kerry Katona, Cheryl Cole and Katie Price to triumph in, or at least be tested by, reality tv shows like Popstars and I'm A Celeb. The public now have a greater claim over the famous image than they ever did before and as such can respond to it in ways that appear more intimate and personal.
So the question might be who is really important? The celebrity or the general public? The consumer of the celebrity image now has more power than ever before. By blogging, uploading, downloading, teeting, photoshopping and doing God knows what to the image they make new ones and can become just as famous as the celebrities they cover, if not more so - look at Perez Hilton.
Maybe there's an argument for a side-project that has images of people consuming the images rather than just the images themselves? I don't know...
Anyway, if you want I know several people who would be very interested in this project. I can give you some contact details if you're interested or just send them the link to this blog?