The Thousands

The other day I was watching an interview with Genesis P-Orridge by my biggest hairlipped man-crush that seems to piss off as many people as he beguiles, Ian Svenonius, and they got onto the topic of Hollywood and fame. Ian, up on his pseudo-academic ‘cultural critique’ horse presented something along the lines of this: to become a famous celebrity in Hollywood has replaced the traditional aspiration to go to heaven. Celebrity is the new church and fame is the new nirvana. But what he didn’t go as far into was the possibility to do both – to get famous in Hollywood and die.

Hollywood Forever is a group exhibition featuring a mix of works by artists Tony Garifalakis, James L Marshall, Takeshi Murata and Christian Tedeschi. Taking its name from the Hollywood star cemetery, the show explores representations of death on the big screen.

Murata works in installation, film, video, and animation, and Hollywood Forever sees the Australian debut of ‘I Popeye’, a video work which premiered in 2010 at the New Museum in New York. Local James L Marshall’s fluorescent light fixtures are straight up eery other-worldly cool. Tony Garifalakis attacks the untouchable Obama with a superimposed inverted crucifix all up in his grill, while Christian Tedeschi with his web-like spun creations has been branded as one to watch.