An enigma can be defined, by my standards, as Andy Warhol and the cult of celebrity. Together. Or separately. Would celebrity have even existed without the subversive guidance of the Lexington Avenue darling? I wold like to think not, but the history of the Hollywood system reveals otherwise.
But Andy (I will retain the right to call him Andy and pretend I am part of the family in The Factory making movies in the 60s, thank you very much) transformed the experience of fame. Controversially making it both attainable, and dare I say cheapening its value. Though I would say he turns in his grave with the existence of disgusting creatures like "Speidi" and that Jordan.
His Screen Tests were one such artifice that Andy utilized to prove that Ordinary Joe, or in Factory vernacular Ondine and Edie, could too be projected into the stratosphere of recognition.
Forty-five years later and now MoMA has organised a new exhibition of a select number of Screen Tests. Not only that but they have given the opportunity to you and me to contribute our own screen test. You can make like Lou Reed and drink some coke, or maybe even falter under the relentless lens like Ana Buchanan and tear.
I can feel my fifteen minutes coming any day now. Screen test to follow.... soon.
For now though, will leave you with a Bowie song that was not even planned, but is nonetheless extremely fitting.
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