An artist becomes exposed to his audience. A woman becomes exposed to stereotypes of the feminine. A girl becomes exposed to the psychosocial patterns of adults. These three dimensions of vulnerability are present in the 25 portraits of famous women who died under violent and obscure circumstances between 1920 and 2010. The same story repeated in 25 different women, actresses, singers, musicians, products of industrialization, and fame that have turned them into goddesses sacrificed to themselves and the myths of our culture.
These portraits of famous women, painted at 8×8 cm, function as imaginary Polaroids. In a fictional moment, they compositionally visualize their conflicts between the girl they once were and the adult who disappeared violently. In all cases, the image suggests an impossible motherhood, mothers of their childhood. Suicides, accidents, and unsolved murders are the symbolic and physical violence produced by the overexposure of these women in their transformation into pop culture myths. They are both old goddesses of the male gaze and victims of the worn-out models of the celebrity industry.
The resolution and form of these hand-painted, intimate pieces function as trompe-l’oeil of the contemporary, mimicking the finishes of photographic post-production, paradoxically recreating nineteenth-century settings where the portraitist reflects, like a play of mirrors, their ghosts about childhood and the demolition of beauty.
Pedro Gálván Lamet
