dear heidi, part 6
July 3, 2008
tangents:
- cindy sherman at fashion week, lauren conrad at fashion week
- cindy sherman for balenciaga, heidi montag with a balenciaga, heidi montag and sarah jessica parker in balenciaga
- cindy sherman is the subject of a weird obsessive movie by a troubled person, heidi montag is the subject of a weird obsessive movie by a troubled person.
- i couldn’t find one of kanye’s hundreds of posts about murakami to neatly tie this together, but here’s a picture of jay-z backed by a giant projection of the damien hirst skull at glastonbury.
- also, from last sunday, kanye giving marc jacobs bunny ears.
- also, HE DESIGNED THE LEGO BALENCIAGAS!
- off theme but really great: audrina discusses the funny side of “the hills,” including a deleted scene involving a shaved cat. there is an incredible wealth of this kind of material on this site which i will surely have more to say about in the future (for example, whitney notes that she is more than just facial expressions). the audio commentaries are my favorite.
- “In 6th grade I wrote a really sweet letter to Jonathan Knight, because I always thought he looked sad (those puppy dog eyes!) in pictures, and I decided it was because he didn’t get as many letters as Jordan or Joey. I told him he was my favorite, even though he wasn’t. This pretty much set the pattern for many future pity-dating scenarios. Sadness.?”
songs about buildings and food 
July 3, 2008 at 11:12 am
I don’t think I’m with you on this one. Sure, they’re both good at manipulating their own image, but Sherman does it to criticize the lack of female agency. Heidi
justdoes it for money and fame. And I don’t get the sense that she’s being ironic or self-aware when she says “I am anyone you want me to be.”I’m betting that this person is much more troubled.
July 3, 2008 at 11:41 am
i don’t think i disagree with you on this. i was trying to avoid a direct statement but i don’t think i’m saying they’re the same – what i think the video is saying is that heidi’s staged for-profit paparazzi photos are the “untitled film stills” of a generation that has operational louis vuitton boutiques inside our art exhibitions.
i don’t think heidi is being ironic or self-aware when she says “i am anyone you want me to be” either but i find that a lot more shocking and powerful than cindy sherman wearing some prosthetics or a wig like she’s been doing for the last twenty years. with cindy sherman, because we know she’s so self aware, because there’s this definite intentionality to what she’s doing and what she’s criticizing, there’s this clear demarcation between her life and her work, between the moody kodachrome photo of her in prosthetics and a stained jumper and the glossy elle snapshot of her in a pretty dress and make-up standing next to david byrne at a fashion week party. with heidi montag there’s no such dividing line (or if there is it’s much, much blurrier) and that’s why i find her much more interesting, personally.
that video is painfully awesome.