Ego and the Effigy: The Mutilation of Pop Culture

Reality or hyperreality? James Ostrer’s semi-permanent sculptures question the culture that we live in, obsessed with celebrities and commodities our lives are directed by a false ideal of the real. Celebrities, the Gods of culture, have mighty egos that we are infatuated with, but Ostrer deconstructs this seduction by exposing a damaged model of a worshipped ideal; effigies that shatter the mask and revoke the promise of glamour and happiness. “I am responding to the vast divide between what we are being sold and what we are actually getting. I’ve labelled them ‘Emotional Downloads’, which stands as a reaction against corporately contrived icons, the myth bearers that we are increasingly forced to worship.” Each Emotional Download has it’s own unique data; the total number of searches each subject has received according to Google. Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, Tiger Woods and a vividly pornified Miley Cyrus in a polka-dotted, latex-breasted maroon fur coat are just a small number of the celebrities re-invited in this series.

“I see increasing parallels between that hyper productivity of factory farming and what I regard as the Factory Faming of talent and celebrity, with the primary focus being vast profit over all else.” Ostrer says, “Cyrus seems to think she’s in control, but is basically pornified by Terry Richardson.” Her beliefs are very far from that of a feasible reality.

So what is our reality? Not a very pretty one, in accordance to James Ostrer. The sculptures are grotesquely intriguing and certainly not aesthetically pleasing, expressing both Ostrer’s vision of today’s culture and additionally his personal life experiences.

When you talk about Factory faming as a 'compassionless conveyor belt of fame,' do you think this relates to Warhol's use of repetition, where the image of the celebrity is reproduced like a commodity?

Warhol's use of repetition was to me a kind of genius visual onomatopoeia iterating the literal aspects to fame's familiarity and therefor consumability. The intent of my new works was to emblematically break down why we are so attracted to this cycle of output while also documenting the negative consequences.

Why did you pick Damien Hirst?

First of all I have always been interested in how his art practice creates such divide in terms of respect for it yet his ability to have dominated the art market is unquestionable. When his artwork "A Thousand Years first" came out 17 years ago, Lucian Freud said that he felt sorry for Damien as he had made the best piece of work he ever could so early on in his career. After the success of my last show "Wotsit All About" there was an aspect of that second album syndrome fear for me ,so this portrait is as much a celebration of my respect for Hirst as it is a self portrait of my own anxiety.

We haven't been able to see the pieces in London yet as they are currently being exhibited in Hong Kong, so tell us a little more about what you did to create the Harry Styles piece?

They are all semi permanent sculptures. The array of materials for this piece includes a favourite leather jacket I bought from LA years ago. I had it lying around the studio as I just couldn't bring myself to throwing it away even though an ex girlfriend had stabbed huge rips in it with a kitchen knife when she was pissed off with me. I filled these holes with stilettos and G-strings from Primark.

Hanging from his forehead are sheep eyes made to look like testicles and also the lower jaw of the same sheep balanced on a microphone. There are some recording equipment cables wrapped round his neck and one of my old trilby hats on top of a human hair wig. The starting point for this artwork was making the exact replicas of Harry's largest tattoos on pigs skin. I still have these big pieces of flesh in my freezer wrapped in cling film and every time I go in there to grab some frozen berries for my morning smoothie for a split second I get freaked out thinking I am a serial killer that casually has his murder trophies stored with his breakfast materials…

Your sculptures make me think of the very surreal hyperreality of celebrity culture. Exploring how celebrity is not real life, but rather a false image of it? Do you agree?

Each work is called an Emotional Download as all the references that I have included in the works are "aspirational" promises that we experience from these industries. I also included what the actual emotional experience you tend to get beneath the shiny layers is like too. Imagine if all the hard drives of the Internet were corrupted, and the information that was restored combined the whole truth, not just what is promised to encourage mindless consumption.

An example is like when you walk past a fifty foot high billboard in Knightsbridge of Cara Delevingne wearing a Burberry coat looking beautiful. You don't experience how unhappy and objectified she is recorded, you just think 'I wouldn't mind sleeping with her/being more like her.' You also never think about how disturbing she has found her fans copying her tattoos - or about the fluffy little rabbits being killed when you see those cute coloured bobbles on every ones woollen hats. How long were you working on this series before you got it 'right'?

I have been working on and off with animal parts for a number of years progressively learning more about butchery as I go along. I made all these works in the last 5 months with the intent of showing them on one wall as a set of seven like a disenfranchised hall of fame. A lot of my art practice is as much about the physical work as it is the circumstance in which I show it and showing them in Hong Kong recently seemed like the perfect time and place.

Lily Bennett

The Ego System was on exhibit at Art Central, Hong Kong. The series is set to travel to the Gazelli House Gallery in the U.K soon.

www.artcentralhongkong.com

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