Shiny, Shiny… Imploding Portraits Inevitable

Henie Ohnstad Kunstsenter

22. October - Kl 15.00

The mirror has always been seen as a medium of both honesty and deceit and its reflection is supposed to lead to self-awareness. 

Portraits are nowadays shared on multiple devices and reflect, transform, distribute, our outwards appearance and inner feelings of self-worth. In the famous Screentests, drag queens, models, critics, curators, art-collectors, poets alike laid their selves bare in 3 minute close-ups. Back then, Andy Warhol was behind the camera, shooting portraits of their most intimate moments.

In the performance Shiny, shiny… post-processed ghosts from the Factory produce their own screen-tests in a game of deception, a puzzle of glaring full-totals and extreme close-ups. Light and shadow appear to defend their stubborn independence to the sound of a Velvet Underground feedback that’s coupled with the now, while further back you hear the faint faraway voices of the Chelsea Girls. Warhol’s “Exploding Plastic Inevitable” has turned into an imploding anti-spectacle.