About the Work
In this photographic work, John Waters employs his method of making modestly scaled hybrids of movies and still images by revisiting scenes from over-the-top melodramas, art-house failures, and cult and popular classics. By juxtaposing the theatrical expressions of an actress with a tempting beverage commercial and titling it AA Sober, Waters creates a critical and entertaining take on the contradictions of cultural enticements and social mores, and America’s unremitting defense of the freedom to choose.
About the Artist
Inspired by B-films and melodramas, John Waters began making films as a teenager, using friends and stolen film stock. His films feature drag queens, drugs, violence, abortion, religion, and depravity, poking fun at their offensiveness while wallowing in it. Later, bigger budget films star Hollywood icons, while still rollicking in poor taste and tackiness.
In the 1990s, Waters started photographing videos on his television, which he edited into “little movies”: various drugstore-processed stills strung together as horizontal filmstrips. These works have been exhibited widely and a traveling exhibition premiered at the New Museum, New York, NY. Waters has authored several journalistic books, a recent memoir, and is an avid art collector. In 2011, he curated an exhibition from the collection of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN.
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