Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Signing an NDA between myself and Lady Gaga and how it meant my work was shown in the Louvre.

So one cool thing to happen during the recent slow period in the VFX season is that I start picking up random freelance jobs, half the time that I am recommended for by fantastic friends and fellow artists. This time I was put in touch with a gentleman from NY who was working with the Photographer (its a Cap cuz once your work is in enough big time museums you probably earned it) Robert Wilson and Lady Gaga to put her up in the Louvre in Paris.  Apparently it had been a long time desire as a google search pointed to articles for the past three years mentioning her wanting to have some installation involving herself in the centuries old museum.
  With her new album being titled "ArtPop" then the marketing planets aligned and it went into motion.  The installation was a mixture of photography and looping videos put up in rooms throughout the Louvre, and all of the pieces mimicked a piece of artwork that was either nearby or normally seen in the same area.

Lady-Gaga-Louvre-1

 I did some compositing and looping on a video that mimicked John the Baptists head on a platter, originally created by Andrea Solari in 1460. You can see my version in the image above.



  A few of these videos were hung in the same room as the Mona Lisa. I have no idea if mine was one of the lucky few, but the possibility of it and my artwork being in the Louvre at all is pretty incredibly awesome for a country kid from Missouri. I've had video work in the MET in New York as a VFX artist, but this is the pinnacle of art museums in my humble opinion.
 I think in total there were around 23 video pieces installed throughout the museum and I am pretty sure there were a couple other John the Baptist segments.  I wished I could have managed a trip over there to see my work hung up in the vicinity of half of my art history book, but c'est la vie.

Bonus Material: