She likes them

November 4, 2005 10:05 AM

Me and Billy Bob and To Vincent, With Love - Laying in the bathtub with Vincent and editing oneself into love scenes with Billy Bob; among other cult-of-celebrity obsessed work by Jillian McDonald.
posted by Peter H (18 comments total)

Delightfully unnerving.
posted by CynicalKnight at 10:28 AM on November 4, 2005

Note: embedded audio that can't be turned off. Bleah. (Peter H: it's nice to indicate things like that next to the link in FPPs.)
posted by medialyte at 10:28 AM on November 4, 2005

Man, Vincent Gallo is just a magnet for weirdos.
posted by VanRoosta at 10:37 AM on November 4, 2005

She crazy!!
posted by jonson at 10:43 AM on November 4, 2005

Isn't this just fanfiction? And Mary Sue fanfiction at that.
posted by barjo at 10:53 AM on November 4, 2005

Man, Vincent Gallo is just a magnet for weirdos.

I really like this work - found it by accident mirrored anonymously elsewhere; so the impact was even stranger out of context. and I really like Gallo and Thornton - That said, I think the gambit or joke (that I can't resist making) for how far she might take this lies in the simple four words: Monsters Ball / Brown Bunny.

Singing with Sling Blade would be nice, as well.
posted by Peter H at 10:55 AM on November 4, 2005

Me, I would've chosen Cary Grant or even, say, Robert Montgomery, but then I'm no performance artist. This is sort of like Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, only a lot creepier.
posted by maryh at 11:04 AM on November 4, 2005

THis is awesome!
posted by mert at 11:15 AM on November 4, 2005

Barking mad. But very cleverly done.
posted by ceri richard at 11:27 AM on November 4, 2005

She's crazier than a June bug on a string, I'm thinking. That and she's probably stolen some of my fifteen minutes doing this stuff.
posted by willmize at 11:40 AM on November 4, 2005

She's not at all crazy--this is brilliant. She's not actually obsessed with Vincent Gallo, it's a commentary on fame.
posted by mert at 11:42 AM on November 4, 2005

"Isn't this just fanfiction? And Mary Sue fanfiction at that."

No, it's Art!
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 12:26 PM on November 4, 2005

medialyte, if you find embedded crap that annoying I don't understand why you're not running flashblock on firefox.
posted by phearlez at 12:38 PM on November 4, 2005

The spectacle can never refer to anything other than itself.

Or, "How can you say we don't need postmodernism??"

Stretching now, Choice #1.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 2:44 PM on November 4, 2005

oh god, i think she got public funds to make that crapola, a Canada Council of the Arts grant to be specific. i mean, ok, it's silly and creepy, and lots of people do stuff like this for a hobby, and inflict it on the rest of us, but getting money from the government to do it as a 'professional artist', now THAT is sad.

anyway, i decided to troll around the CCoA site, and i couldn't find the grant in the database, so i thought that either i must be wrong or that it must be a very current grant, or maybe an old one. then i found the mention of the money source on this page on her site. beside the CCoA, she sucked up money from several places for this project - which also features a video installation - including the City of Winnipeg Arts Council, the Manitoba Arts Council, and Pace University.

truly pathetic.
posted by TrinityB5 at 10:55 PM on November 4, 2005

Are you against all arts funding by public bodies, TrinityB5, or just the work you don't like? Sheesh.

Anyway, great stuff. Her look into the camera at the opening of In the Tub With Vincent Gallo sums the up the whole project rather nicely, I thought.

Also interesting that she's not just presenting gallery work on the web - the fact that folk will stumble across this stuff and take it to be fan fiction, or yet another creepy thing on the web seems to be quite an important aspect of these pieces. (I'm sure I've read about public performance pieces which, if you saw her performing them, wouldn't appear to be 'art' at all. Jogging alongside other joggers, going to parties dressed ever-so-slightly innapropriately for the occasion, that sort of thing.)
posted by jack_mo at 4:10 AM on November 5, 2005

bad integration with the films, sorry.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 7:31 AM on November 5, 2005

nope, i am not against all arts funding by public bodies, but why did this need to be funded? it's pretty dreadful stuff. most people do crap like this in their spare time. if this is 'profesional art', you have to wonder what standard is used, obviously not a very high one. even the worst Turner submission beats this.
posted by TrinityB5 at 2:48 AM on November 7, 2005