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| Press Release Emilia Telese at Get Real - Rochester Gallery - Private View and performance Thursday 14th October 6.30 - 8.30pm Exhibition continues 15 October 2010 - 3 January 2011 Get Real brings together contemporary artworks that explore transformation and communication within unreal, imaginary and artificial contexts through photography, film, installation, performance and jewellery. UK-based Italian artist Emilia Telese explores public and media fascination surrounding icons and celebrities. Her pieces Perfect 10 and Life of a Star look at the heights of frenzy associated with the act of being famous and interprets the beauty industry’s obsession with perfection. Find out more about Emilia. PERFECT 10 - performance & installation Our image-obsessed society constantly bombards us with enhanced, airbrushed photographs of perfect women. It is increasingly difficult to perceive and accept one’s own appearance as “attractive” or even “normal”. PERFECT 10: is
a live art performance and installation dealing with image obsession
and the concept of the “fitting in” by trying to achieve the
unattainable and narrow ideals of beauty perpetrated by contemporary
media. PERFECT 10 includes three limited edition prints commissioned by Artsway Gallery and supported by the Leverhulme Foundation, available for sale through www.artsway.org.uk Women
and girls worldwide are incessantly bombarded with images of digitally
enhanced, unrealistic female beauty based on an idealized version of
Western-type body and face. This
fuels a multi-billion dollar industry based on insecurity about looks
and a homogenized model of appearance that doesn’t take into account
the individual, diverse reality of how women look in different
cultures, at different ages and times of their life. The piece will start with a two hours live performance in which the artist will be surrounded by her own collection of cosmetics and toiletries hoarded throughout her life since 1987. Using the latest beauty products, obsessively advertised in glossy magazines, Emilia Telese will try and replicate the looks of the perfect models depicted on them. The rituals of cleansing, toning, moisturizing and applying make up will be followed scrupulously to try and achieve an unachievable perfection. At the end of her performance, Perfect 10 will become an installation dealing with issues of self-perception and the tyranny of the beauty industry. ________________________________ LIFE OF A STAR - Venice Why are we obsessed with celebrities? What's life like for someone who is continuously stalked, filmed, envied, spied upon, deprived of privacy? Are celebrities ultimately lonely in a sea of shallow obsession and flattery? Life of a Star is a study of celebrity and the effects of morbid attention from the public for the 'famous for being famous'. A movie star, incarnated by Emilia Telese, arrives surrounded by four bodyguards, protecting her, stifling her, shielding her, describing meticulously her every move, from the raising of an eyebrow to a detailed report of her smile, as a swarm of tabloid journalists are forever asking cheeky questions and launching in preposterous insinuations, and prying paparazzi flash their bulbs and call her name. Life of a Star questions the validity of the star system and its preoccupation with status, fame and the superfluous. Life of a StarCreated, produced, interpreted and directed by Emilia Telese. First performed at Fabrica Gallery, August 1998. Subsequently performed at The Big Art Challenge, Channel Five, 2004; the New Forest Pavilion, Palazzo Zenobio, 51st Venice Biennale, 2005; Contemporary Visual Arts Centre Vestjylland, En Tangsogade 4 Udstilling, Denmark, 2007, Coastal Currents Film Festival, Hastings 2008 The film for Life of a Star - Venice was filmed and produced by Giacobbe Gamberini - Zootroupe - Italy 2006 Activities at Rochester Art Gallery Emilia Telese, Performance of Perfect 10 Emilia Telese in conversation with Ted Polhemus, author of Streetstyle -- Emilia Telese artist, writer, broadcaster Regional Council Member, Arts Council England, South East Artsway Associate Artist Artists' Networks Coordinator, a-n The Artists' Information Company http://www.emiliatelese.com http://www.myspace.com/emiliatelese SKYPE: emi_telese MSN: [log in to unmask] Follow me on Twitter! http://twitter.com/emiliatelese NEXT UP: Get Real, Rochester Art Gallery - until 3 January http://www.whatsonmedway.co.uk/site/whats-on-for-me/exhibitions/get-real Recent news Wall Into Pieces, Phoenix Brighton 4th September http://tinyurl.com/34npsns DJ at Brighton Live Festival, 6th October http://www.brightonlive.net/ Four Senses - London 2012 Commission at Artsway http://www.london2012.com/events/four-senses.php Agora - public art commission at John Hansard Gallery, Southampton - Autumn 2010 Emilia Telese is represented by Artsway Gallery - New Forest Artsway Associates is funded by The Leverhulme Trust and Arts Council England http://www.artsway.org.uk/more_associat.htm Emilia Telese is an artist interested in conscious engagement Love + respect life |