Slater Bradley & Ed Lachman
dal 16/3/2011 al 6/5/2011
Segnalato da
16/3/2011
Slater Bradley & Ed Lachman
Galeria Helga de Alvear, Madrid
Shadow. Over the past 12 years, Slater Bradley has produced a unique and singular line of videos and photographs, which culminates in this exhibition. In 1999 he met his doppelganger, Ben Brock, from that moment on, they began a collaboration which lasts until today. The piece he presents on this occasion is based on the last film shot by River Phoenix Dark Blood, who died during the process, leaving the film unfinished. For this purpose, Bradley collaborated with film-maker Ed Lachman, director of photography in that film, and someone whose personal memories are crucial for this project.
Over the past 12 years, Slater Bradley has produced a unique and singular line of
work, which culminates with the project he presents in his new exhibition.
Throughout this period, the artist has researched his own biography, and,
through it, that of the entire generation he belongs to.
In 1999, at the age of 24, he met his doppelganger, Ben Brock, in a New York
nightclub. From that moment on, they began a collaboration which lasts until
today. In videos and photographs Brock has enacted Bradley enacting different
tragic figures of the collective teenager imaginary: Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis, or
Michael Jackson. Together with references to the Star Wars saga, or to fictional
characters such as Holden Caulfield, they inform the collective imaginary
through which Bradley exorcises his own biography, while at the same time
reflecting on an entire generation.
The play of mirrors established between artist Bradley, his double Brock, and
the portrayed idols of youth culture informs one of the richest and most original
artistic bodies of work of recent years, by examining "the psychological effects of
idolatry, mimicry and the collective unconscious in the formation of the
teenager identity of a specific generation: my own".
The piece he presents on this occasion, "Shadow", is based on the last film shot
by River Phoenix Dark Blood, who died during the process, leaving the film
unfinished. For this purpose, Bradley collaborated with film-maker Ed
Lachman, director of photography in that film, and someone whose personal
memories are, also, crucial for this project. They both traveled to the original
location in the Utah desert in order to film this false prequel to the original film.
The narrative mixes elements from the original script, together with others
imagined by Bradley, as well as findings or references to the creative process
initiated by both of them. For example, when visiting the bar frequented by
Phoenix during the filming, they chanced upon pictures of the actor in the
company of Lachman, pictures that end up being a central element in "Shadow".
The piece becomes a three-sided play between Bradley, Lachman and Phoenix,
which reflects on the present, the past and the future, reality and fiction,
creation and memory.
Ed Lachman (New Jersey, 1946), is a film-maker and director of photography
with a unique career, both in Hollywood (including an Oscar nomination) and
in the realm of independent American film. He has worked with Jean-Luc
Godard, Wim Wenders, Bernard Bertolucci, Werner Herzog, Todd Haynes,
Sofia Coppola, or Steven Soderbergh.
Slater Bradley (San Francisco, 1975) has worked both with painting and
photography, although his audiovisual production is an important part of his
work. He has taken part in the Whitney Biennial, and in collective exhibitions at
the PS1, CGAC, the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, or the Chicago Museum of
Contemporary Art.
Opening march 17th 2011, h 8p.m.
Galería Helga de Alvear
Doctor Fourquet, 12, Madrid 28012
Hours: tuesday to saturday 11:00 - 14:00 and 16:30 a 20:30