Artist and director John Waters, known for off-kilter cult favorites as Pink Flamingos and Serial Mom, has been subverting common themes — religion, domesticity, glamour and fame — throughout his career. A prolific artist, alongside films, Waters has been creating still photo-based work since the early 1990s. His latest show, a photographic exhibition called Beverly Hills John, has, after a successful Berlin run, landed in London.
Beverly Hills John sees Waters tackle, in signature sardonic fashion, celebrity culture, by asking the question, ‘Since celebrity is the only obscenity left in the art world, where do I fit in?’
In the show, Waters demonstrates his innate talent at striking a balance between brutality and humour, defamation and care. The main gallery hosts Shoulda! (2014), a depiction, in classic exploitation movie tradition, of the faces of five famous women, from Whitney Houston to Amy Winehouse, with Princess Diana in the middle. Then there’s Kiddie Flamingos (2015), a 74-minute movie in which a group of school kids perform a table read of the censored script to Waters’ Pink Flamingos (1972).
It is a show that, like much of Waters’ work, parodies but also pushes a commentary through its crude barbs.
Reconstructed Lassie, 2012 C-Print 76.2 x 50.8 cm
Congratulations, 2014 C-Print 35.6 x 43.2 cm
Beverly Hills John, 2012 C-Print 76.2 x 50.8 cm
Grim Reaper, 2014 C-Print 20.3 x 20.3cm
Beverly Hills John
John Waters
Sprüth Magers London
July 1 – August 15, 2015
7A Grafton Street, London, W1S 4EJ