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PROMICOOKIES / CELEBRETIY COOKIES: Hollywood Teeth
performance, concept, installation
Armed with a stipend of the DAAD I went to live for half a year in Los Angeles in order to chase celebrities. I asked prominent people to mould objects with their mouths out of the material dough. This mouthmoulded dough-sculpture becomes a consumable cookie after being baked, a celebrety cookie and relic, stored and sealed in a membrane box. Metaphor for language, sculpture turned inside out, negative space of the the body, desired closeness to the adored person, or maybe just a lump of spit if you do not like the celebrety or do not know them. To reach my trophy I had to serve various strategies: Queuing in the gang of autograph hunters, visiting auditions, celebrety golf tournaments, Playboy parties, befriending with paparazzis etc. So far among other have participated Alice Cooper, Anna Nicole-Smith, Pedro Almodovar, Coolio, Sally Kirkland, Michael Clark Duncan, Hannelore Elsner, Michael Schanze and from the art scene Kasper König, Bazon Brock, Jan Hoet.
I found myself in the weirdest situations, waiting for hours in hotel lobbies for the arrival of Jennifer Lopez, hiding in toilets of Golden Globe Galas, being squeezed by autograph hunters to a fence behind which Nicole Kidman is standing, pushed to the ground by CBC reporters and always with a fresh lump of dough in my pocket. Worldwrapmaster Coolio suggested to go to a private party to mould other body parts than just teeth and blinke at me while his Pamela Anderson lookalike girlfriend enthusiastically jumped on his suggestion. On a charity auction Larry King was just about to bite in dough when his bodyguards through me out.
Parallel to my stalking activities I spent time at Hollywoods Taxidermists to take teeth imprints of animal teeth, partly dangerous aimals like shark, bear, crocodile, rattlesnake, wulf, raven. A taxidermist warned me that the poison of rattlesnake, though frozen is still deadly.
Talking with the people living in LA I learned life in the city can be quite tough: Either you have the VIP card or yo don’t, either you join in the battle or you don’t. And if you are not part you define yourself out of the defense situation. And ignoring Hollywood simply does not work. The fight for survival can be bitter and you need good teeth, just think of Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Penelope Cruz. Smiles can be used as a weapon and the one who shows more theeth wins the show of the carnivores. Always present the media and paparazzi but also the mercilesness with which the actors deliver themselves. And he media to me seemed somehow like a devouring belly of the people an I also had to think of Anna Nicole Smith who devoured but also got devoured. Who is victim, who is suspect? And what kind of drive is it to stand in the spotlights at any costs? Does it give a bodily kick of adrenalin? Am I more desirable if more visible, climbed up in the order of evolution?
The animals gone tired can be found on autograph fairs with the D and E etc. celebrities. There I met Lucy Ewing from the 80tis TV-Soap Dallas, little, chubby, elderly, next to photos of her prime time. But she did not want to bit in my dough and said I was a pervert.
Images:
(1) Anna Nicole Smith and mouthmoulded Cookie sculpture
(2) At the Taxidermist in Hollywood
(3) Tafelrunden, Maximiliansforum Munich
(4) Coolio and girlfriend mouthmoulding cookiedough, Playboy Party, Hollywood
(5) Celebrety cookie of Pedro Almodovar, with signature
(6) Celebrety Cookie of Alice Cooper, sealed in membrane box
(7) Nicole Kidman at the Egyptian Cinema, Hollywood Boulevard
(8) At the Taxidermist in Hollywood
(9) bronze objects, teeth imprints of shark, crocodile, wulf, celebrity
(10) Autograph fair, Hollywood, actor and fan
(11) Celebrety Cookies, Nina Ruge, Marianne Sägebrecht, Hannelore Elsner, Coolio, Alfons Schubeck, Desiree Nosbusch and others
(12) waiting in a hotel lobby for the arrival of Jennifer Lopez
(13) snake, hoto: creative commons
(14) bronze object, teethimprints of a shark
(15) Pedro Almodovar mouthmoulding cookiedough
(16) Tafelrunden, Maximiliansforum Munich
(17) Tafelrunden, Maximiliansforum Munich
Photos: Wilfried Petzi 3, 16, 17, others: Angela Dorrer
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