Pop Life

We caught this exhibition today and found it fun, fascinating, weird and repulsive all at the same time. It takes as its starting point Andy Warhol and explores the artists he influenced.The main themes seemed to be those artists who were expert at self-publicity, commercialising their work and branding themselves - and of course those who did all those three through being controversial (so there were lots of photos of penises and vaginas and artworks about sex and death). So I think you can guess that the featured artists included Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin.

The one piece that amused me was Damien Hirst’s identical twins artwork where a pair of twins are stationed under two of his dot paintings. When we were there, it was two pretty brunette sisters with pre-Raphaelite hair and matching grey dresses. It was interesting to watch people milling around wondering whether or not to stare at them: were these two girls part of the exhibition or were they just a couple of regular visitors who had found chairs to sit on? I have to say, I felt very odd staring at them as they looked back at me!

I chatted to one of them later and learnt that they had a four hour shift before the next set of twins took over. This was their first session and they had three more lined up over the next few weeks. I asked if they had to audition and she said, no, they just had to send their photos in. I asked if it felt weird and she said that it was not as weird as she had expected.

I wonder if any rich art collector has bought this art piece. The logistics of installing it in your home would be very interesting….