el diario de la muerte

Made it to the AGO to see Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters, 1962–1964, the Andy Warhol exhibit curated by David Cronenberg. The show itself was fairly small. What made it interesting was the narration by Cronenberg on his ideas of the links in the work. Also since the paintings are such instantaneous images I'd never really taken the time to stop and look at them past their usual pervasiveness in mass media (where I always wrote them off as uninteresting at best). Being confronted by several roomfuls of them gave me a new appreciation for their existence.

Despite the flat factory aesthetic of how Warhol used his images seeing them in person there was an element of almost poetic rhythm to how the images are repeated I hadn't noticed before. The choices of colour or lack of and intensity of the prints all changed the final effect of the images. Celebrity and tragedy are united and become one another. Stars fade out and common people become famous through dying. Both achieve immortality through the media. The instant moment becomes eternity.

Looking through books on Vodou today I also came across this passage: The Gede family of spirits are the guardians of the dead and the masters of the libido. They embrace the dual domains of human frailty and mortality, the creation and the conclusion of life. It seems to fit with what Cronenberg was saying about Warhol, especially with his description of Silver Disaster #6 as a very sexual image. The painting is of an electric chair in an empty room.

Ah yes, he was also a voyeur.

Poet John Giorno: What are you working on now?

Andy: Death