Untitled Backdrops
After occasionally intensive resarch, I visit sites of contemporary Hollywood scandals, photographing them at approximately the same time of day that the scandal occurred. I crop the images to the traditional 1 to 1.85 cinematic "widescreen" aspect ratio, and deliver prints to the Warner Brothers’ Scenic Arts Department where professional Backdrop Painters make 185.5 cm x 335.5 cm (6 feet x 11 feet 1 inch) “backdrops.”
I am interested in turning the site of an off-screen event in a film star’s life into a backdrop — thus suggesting the very public nature of their “private” lives. Many of the celebrities involved — Paris Hilton, Robert Downey Jr., Lindsay Lohan, George Michael, and Anne Heche — are as well known for their off-screen activities as their on-screen performances. I am also interested in feeding these scandal-suffused images, potentially embarrasments to the industry, back into the film industry and utilizing their processes to generate my large paintings.
