Guest of Cindy Sherman
Thursday, September 15th / 7pm
Grail Moviehouse
45 S French Broad, Asheville
We’re teaming up with the Asheville Darkroom to bring you: Guest of Cindy Sherman !!!
In 1979, Cindy Sherman rocked the NYC art world at age 26 with her “Film Stills.” The haunting photographic series appears to chronicle actresses in the midst of dramatic and evocative film scenes, but is in fact the artist herself posing as the different subjects. Hailed for her play on media and identity, the shy and reclusive Sherman almost always uses herself as the model in her photographs and always in disguise.
Today, at age 62, she is internationally acknowledged as one of the world’s most gifted and significant visual talents — in May 1999, ARTnews named Sherman, alongside Matisse and Picasso, as one of “The 20th Century’s Most Influential Artists.”
(Currently, The Broad Museum in Los Angeles is holding a retrospective exhibition of her work.)
Although Sherman’s work is collected by every major art museum in the world, she has proven elusive as a media personality. She is not a self-promoter and leads a quiet private life. Sherman rarely does interviews and never explains the meaning of her work. Fans, desperate for a glimpse of this art world celebrity at her 2003 opening in England’s Serpentine Gallery, could not recognize who they were looking for.
Enter her complete opposite — Paul H-O, a former artist-turned-opinionated host/creator of the public-access series, GalleryBeat. In the nineties, Paul’s weekly show developed a cult following, chronicling often-inexplicable happenings in the contemporary art world. Produced on a shoestring budget with help from Art in America magazine editors Walter Robinson and Cathy Lebowitz, the program was a labor of love, driven by a strong affinity for art and its creators. By the late nineties, Paul had become a recognizable fixture in the art scene, picking up fans and detractors: artist Julian Schnabel, entangled in an on-camera argument with Paul, called the program “idiotic.”
In 1999, Paul learned that Cindy Sherman counted herself among his fans. At once, he set out to capture the ultimate prize in art world journalism — to tape a series of interviews with the elusive artist. Cornering her at an art gallery opening, Paul asked for her participation. Surprising many (including Paul), Sherman agreed. As he started the series of interviews, fun banter turned into harmless flirting, and harmless flirting turned into something more – Paul and Cindy were falling in love. Soon after they started dating, Paul faced a series of personal crises, including illness and bankruptcy. Cindy stood by him, providing her love and support. In 2001, Paul moved into her SoHo loft, becoming further enmeshed in her world.
Guest of Cindy Sherman takes an eye-opening look at what happens when a skeptical outsider finds himself romantically involved with the ultimate insider.
Mechanical Eye Microcinema 