Study Art Sign (For Prestige or Spite), courtesy of C. Grimaldis Gallery
Recently, I had the privilege of touring the exhibition John Waters: Versailles at C. Grimaldis Gallery with Director and unparalleled tastemaker John Waters as well as members of the BMA’s Friends of Modern and Contemporary Art, a group of dedicated BMA Members who explore their passion for Contemporary and modern art through social and educational events.
John was insightful, incredibly funny, and despite his celebrity status, charmingly unassuming. He revealed that he began making photographs secretly, shooting images from films appearing on television screens, as he said, “like a crazed fan in the dark.” He sees this as a way to “redirect” movies. Or perhaps he aims to redirect our memories of movies. John noted that we remember stills of movies even more powerfully than the moving picture itself. Here he is creating a new kind of still image, one snatched from the ever-changing motion of the movie.
John encouraged us to look at movies as he does. If you don’t like the movie, look closely in its corners, see what’s hiding there. Maybe it’s just about a lamp that captures your attention and you take it out of context and re-contextualize it elsewhere. He’s encouraging us to see things, however familiar, in a completely different way, hopefully with a dash of humor.
Versailles courtesy of C. Grimaldis Gallery
For him, the assembled photographic images that result from his experiments are about editing as much as they are about photography. He is making and arranging choices in story boards. Sometimes he combines images from different movies. In Have You Ever Been on a Trip? several frames of Lana Turner are interrupted by a skull that never appeared with the starlet.
These photographic works are often about images and words. Many have title boards, some from real films, others composed from inexpensive lettering kits. One, The Poseidon Adventure, is just words. They are hung upside down to recall the fate of the sunken ship. Another, 4377, reveals the word HELL when it is swiveled around. In DWI, to examine stars whose movie characters are driving under the influence, he rejects the images and instead photographs the written descriptions of what happened in each movie.
Many works in the show are very specific to the world of making and presenting movies. Sound of a Hit plays audio recorded at The Senator Theater’s box office. The ring of the cash register is a reminder of what the film industry is all about. Change Over Mark memorializes the markers that cued old-time film projectionists to switch from reel to reel. The sculpture Bad Directors Chair includes references to every failing that could be imagined in a director’s performance. Of course, no one present believed that a single one of these accusations could be leveled at John Waters!
Detail of John Jr. courtesy of C. Grimaldis Gallery
Other works are more clearly autobiographical. Stalker records notes John actually received, chronicling the cost of celebrity. You can see a photograph of his childhood portrait in pastel (you have seen thousands of sentimental portraits like this—you probably own one). This example, though, has been updated with John’s signature, pencil-line moustache, a very adult addition. The altered image is John then, now, always.
John gracefully explained I Accuse My Parents. He simply doesn’t accuse them, he said. In fact, they encouraged all his interests. “I have no reason to be as neurotic as I am.” Then sounding decidedly not neurotic, John reminded us that no child can continue to blame their parents once they reach thirty anyway.
All of us thank you, John, for your work and for your exoneration from parental guilt!
Doreen Bolger is always on the move because she can’t stop seeing, supporting, and writing about the arts in and around Baltimore City. Her lengthy love affair for the arts began in Long Island when her father, an executive in the textile industry, brought home breathtaking fabrics every night from the heart of the garment district. 