Edinburgh gets ‘Warholised’

Thu, Aug 30, 2007

Art and animation, Conventions and events

Not a comics story but since Andy Warhol is a modern artist anyone interested in visual arts can really ignore it seems worth mentioning: as part of the large Warhol exhibition currently running in Edinburgh (where the pillars of the Royal Academy have been re-dressed to resemble Campbell’s soup tins) performance group Mischief La-bas will be roving around the galleries on the Mound and the nearby Princes Street Gardens for the next few days. They will be taking Warhol’s phrase that in the future everyone would be famous for fifteen minutes and acting on it by approaching members of the public to ‘Warholise‘ them, taking their picture then treating it in the style of Warhol’s famous multiple-image, multi-coloured portraits such as his Marilyn Monroe one. The results will be projected onto a large screen by the galleries in a rolling programme of images so passers-by in the street can see it.

Andy Warhol Marilyn Monroe.jpg

I do like when art interacts with people – and in this case they don’t even need to be in a gallery for it to happen or to see it; hopefully it will encourage some folks who sometimes think of galleries as not for them to give it a bash and visit the actual exhibition. For those outside the city the National Galleries of Scotland has a special microsite where you can upload your own pic and have it ‘warholised’. I may have to give this a bash later – I remember back in my college days when I first came across early Photoshop ‘warholising’ one of my photos was the first thing I did with it to see what you could do with the package – I imagine the amount of amateurs and professionals who have re-used that concept for themselves must be legion. The exhibition runs until October the 7th; full details can be found on the NGA site here.