Wednesday, April 21, 2010

My apologies to Lady Gaga

For thinking she didn't have any kind of 'point' with her performances. In fact, I'd call it performance art. I missed her live concerts here in Melbourne, but I've since spent a lot of time getting to know her through her video clips, and I'm at the point where I just cannot look away.

Standard disclaimer: I wish that to be truly At The Top Of Her Game, being Challenging and Artistic, a female artist would not automatically have to strip off, display a standardised body, and wear it as some kind of badge of pride.

But.

If they have to do it, I hope they do it like Gaga. Wearing her performances. Sneering at the camera. Demanding sex when she wants it. Rivaling the Cremaster Cycle in profusion of allegorical, symbolic and downright confusing imagery. Encasing body parts and concepts in materials weighed down by layers of meaning. Doing some damn fine music. Exploring colour, movement and texture. Toying with expectations and demands of others, and then throwing them off effortlessly.

When I grow up into a toned, bosomed and bleached body, I want to be Lady Gaga.

1 comment:

  1. Said it perfectly. I'm VERY glad that so many of us had our first impressions of narcissism proven wrong with the advent of the Fame Monster. If anything, it's refreshing to see an artist creatively develop so quickly before our eyes...

    I managed to see her last Melbourne show - the main impression I came away with is of utter fearlessness. She's already positioning herself as some kind of heroic, almost archetypal figure - but she can go a lot farther yet. That third album really can't come soon enough.

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