James Franco Dons Drag In "New Film Stills" Photography Show: PHOTOS
James Franco continues to co-opt gay tropes with "James Franco: New Film Stills," a new photography exhibit that opened Friday at Soho's Pace Gallery.
Speaking of co-opting, the exhibition is actually a re-creation of Cindy Sherman’s "Untitled Film Stills" from the late 1970s, with Franco adopting the same poses, attire and scenarios as Sherman did.
Says Franco in the exhibition text:
Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills broke new ground in so many ways: they can be read as critique of portrayals of women in film, a critique that goes hand in hand with the work of critic Laura Mulvey; they can be read as performances; as photographs; as examinations of types; they are both humorous and earnest. Cindy is an artist who used cinema as a source for her work; she ‘played’ at being an actress. I am an actor who inserts himself into his work.
Where Cindy used cinema as a starting place, I use art as a starting place. She, like so many of my favorite artists (Douglas Gordon, Richard Prince, Dan Colen, Nate Lowman, Paul McCarthy) uses cinema in her work, but she comes at it from a position outside of Hollywood. I am fully embedded in Hollywood, but these photos allow me to take a step to the side, look back, and refashion the work I do in Hollywood. I am at the same time actor, critic, artist, and character.”
Previously Franco reworked outtakes from My Own Private Idaho to create My Own Private River, and co-directed Interior. Leather. Bar, a re-imaging of "lost" footage from William Freidkin's Cruising. He and Seth Rogen even duplicated Kanye and Kim's cycle scene from the "Bound 2" video.
Well, if you're gonna steal, steal from the best.
"New Film Stills" runs at Pace Gallery through May 3.
