Many artists make work about celebrities and
celebrity worship and It’s usually criticism the Western obsession with fame,
image and consumerism. The visual connection between religious worship and
celebrity worship is, I find, an over worked cliché. Cultural icons as religious icons, celebrity
idols as idols, Madonna as the Madonna .. they’re pretty obvious one- liners.
I understand the connections in practice and in
imagery between religious worship and celebrity worship in our changing
cultural landscape and media saturated world, yes, I’ve done my research
and I get it. But I still think they are
superficial connections, fundamentally religion is something completely
different. Religion is immensely powerful, it’s spiritualism- it seeks to
answer life’s biggest questions of morals, of mortality, life after death, of
the soul and the creation of humans and the universe. Of course there are
connections, especially aesthetically, between celebrity worship and religious
worship practices and paraphernalia because religious worship has been such a
massive part of our culture for thousands of years. So I think to make the
statement celebrity worship is a new religion is not a fully considered
one.
However there are branches of religious practice
that is much closer, although by no means the same, as celebrity worship and
the fan/idol relationship. Veneration for example- Veneration is not worship,
it means to regard with respect and reverence. Relics, bowing, making the sign
of the cross, statues, shrines and going on pilgrimages are examples of
religious veneration. I chose to focus on relics and the idea of a relic in
particular because they are beautiful, creepy, magical, morbid and completely
and utterly captured my imagination!
We all know about celebrity ‘relics’, they get into
the headlines a lot, weird celebrity stuff being auctioned off like chewing
gum, half eaten sandwiches, worn underwear, towels, x-rays, altopsy tools,
hair, tissues etc. but this baffles me.. even as a fan. I know a part of being
a fan is feeling a human connection with the idol, that’s why it’s cool to see
the outfits and stuff at Hard Rock Café ‘wow, they really wore this and here it
is in front of me!’ but why would you want their discarded yucky stuff?
I contemplated- if I could have a celebrity relic
from my Jedward, what would I want? It
certainly wouldn’t be chewed gum or underwear. In fact, I couldn’t really think
of anything physical that I would want to have from them because I would find
that weird. And more importantly, I think they would find it weird too and it
doesn’t fulfill my fan or personal ambitions to be thought of as a weirdo by someone
I hold in such high esteem.
So I metaphorically donned my ruby slippers and
thought of myself as Dorothy asking the Wonderful Wizards of Jed for what I
desired the most. From Edward, I’d want
to be entrusted with a secret. And from John.. that was more difficult I have
to say. A song? A compliment? A confession? So I collected 2 identical empty
scent bottles to store my relics in and took them away with me to Jedward.
Now a thing I find fascinating about fandom
is what can mean so much to one person, can mean absolutely nothing to
another. What’s precious, genius,
awe-inspiring, beautiful and amazing to so many people is disregarded, stupid
and weird to many more. My precious relics to venerate won’t physically exist;
they will literally be just empty cheap little bottles. they will only be precious,
sentimental and valuable to me.
So? Did I get the relics from John and Edward? Yes
I did. I ended up just winging it and asking John for ‘I dunno, just say
something nice.’ Poetic.
But I don’t have a stitch of proof, no photos, no
letter of authenticity. As far as I’m aware nobody saw it happen and nobody
knows what’s in the bottles except Edward, John and I. in fact, I actually
don’t know what’s in Edward’s bottle, he didn’t tell me and I didn’t hear, it’s
an actual real secret. 100% genuine jedwardsecrets.
Now what
to do with the bottles?
I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it yet. To tell you the truth, I
didn’t even think I would get them; I thought I’d be too embarrassed and
chicken out. I told Edward I was going to build a sculpture around it. I might,
or I might build some sort of elaborate relic holder. I’m taking inspiration
from the beautiful glass vesselware sculptures of Andy Paiko but I don’t know. For the
time being though I just like to have them and hold them. I think about the how
warm they were when they gave them to me from their breath and they seem to
have an electrical pulse in them. They’re sort of magic. I sometimes find
myself subconsciously holding Edward’s bottle to my ear to try and hear the
secret.. then I realize how ridiculous that is. Like when there’s a black-out
and you search for candles and try to turn on the light to find them..
