Madeleine Farley
LIB_Submenu_Sculpt

henri bristol
horace bristol
bloomfield
brynner
dunas
getty
farley
hellman
hurrell
kilmer-alborzi
lennard
stivers
sullivan
york

LA WEEKLY...Tips for Today
Art or kitsch? Who cares as long as it’s fun? That was the prevailing sentiment at the opening of MADELEINE FARLEY’s show, “Movie-Tips,” at Miauhaus Gallery. The perky British artist has forged new ground with her photo blowups of classic movie moments, reconstructed using Q-Tips and shot with a throwaway Instamatic. If the shower scene from Psycho, with Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins portrayed by Q-Tips, or a Q-Tip luxuriating in the bed of roses from American Beauty, or two Q-Tips riding a bike from E.T. (pictured) strikes your fancy, you’re in good company: Among the movie buffs who cotton to Farley’s art are Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Salma Hayek and Ed Norton. Lots more names happily strutted the gauntlet of frenzied photos lined up in front of the gallery. We spotted MICHAEL YORK, CAROLE KING, TREY PARKER, Sex and the City’s JOHN CORBETT, suds star LAURA LEE BELL, stage vet SEAN CULLEN, and Once and Again’s STEVEN WEBER, who lamented a crushed Q-Tip on the floor as “the ultimate artistic statement of what Hollywood is all about.” Perhaps the most ambitious work in the exhibition was the life-size blond-wigged Q-Tip Marilyn Monroe in the entranceway, plastic skirt billowing à la The Seven Year Itch. Farley plans to continue in the movie-tip genre. “I’ve been trying for ages to stop,” she sighed, “but there are so many movies I haven’t yet tackled. I think I’ve been taken over.” Sounds like “Invasion of the Q-Tip Body Snatchers” will be coming soon to a gallery near you.
Mary Beth Crain