If you love Warhol then check out Other Voices, Other Rooms at The Hayward Gallery, Southbank, London, UK, The exhibition is on until 18th of January 2009. unfortunately (at least for me) they aren’t showcasing his prints but rather the his 67 minute long epic grainy hand-held camera extravaganza ‘Mrs Warhol’, aka Julia Warhola, that features his 73 year old mother ranting obsessively from the dark recesses of her dank basement apartment of her son’s Lexington Avenue home.

I, as you may have guessed (or not) from my work ‘Warholes‘, have a deep respect for Andy Warhol and his achievements in the Pop Art annals of history. However I have always suffered from a distinct though metaphorical bad taste in my mouth when it comes to his film photography.

in complete opposition to the succinctness and bold message of say his Soup Cans series, inspired by the gradual disdain an arts student Warhol felt for his ritualistic daily tin of Campbell’s Soup for lunch. There are so many flavours in a brand, and only so much variety in the world before what once was seen as pleasure and comfort, eventually represents repetitious tedium of the lowest order. The everyday was for Warhol a misnomer, a self-imposed prison of exhausted perception and experience.

Ironcially I feel much the same about Andy Warhols films, the jerky haphazard photography is only matched in its audacity by the drab and disjointed screenplays Warhol so famously for the most part took little forethought or planning. More ironic still is that The Southbank Centre have managed to fall into one of the most obvious Hollywood cliches in film history.

The Trailer is Better Than the Film.

Take a look at this:-

Now take a look at this video of the actual exhibition.

My point is, if I do even have a point, is that however important an artist Andy Warhol was and is, there are many greater filmmakers out there, most likely including those of past, present and future exhibitors at The Hayward Gallery.

This post is tagged Andy Warhol, film photography, Hayward Gallery, London Art, London Galleries, London UK, Other Voices Other Rooms, South Bank, southbank centre, southbank london, Warhol Exhibition