“My Valentine,” the first single off Sir Paul McCartney's new album “Kisses on the Bottom” was directed by one-time Beatle himself and features the sickeningly stunning Natalie Portman and super sexy Johnny Depp.
Paul's daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney, styled the black and white video which features the two stars simply signing the words to the song with hand gestures.
The guitar melody you hear throughout (despite seemingly played by Depp in the video) is actually played the legendary Eric Clapton.
“The inspiration is Nancy [Shevell],” said Paul McCartney, referencing his new wife (he reportedly sang the song at their wedding.) “The actual video itself is inspired by Irving Penn’s photography.”
He later told the crowd at the video's Los Angeles premiere, that his daughter, Stella, encouraged him to make the video: “I said, ‘I’m not sure I want to do a million-dollar video.’ She said, ‘So do something really simple. You know, Natalie. Ring Natalie up and ask her if she’ll do something.’ I said, ‘That is a good idea.’ So I rang her, and she was so kind to agree to do it. Then I realized it was a guy’s song, so then I rang Johnny. And he very kindly agreed to do it. A week after Stella had mentioned the idea, I was back here filming it.”
Francesco Vezzoli's project 'Greed' is a faux ad campaign for an imagined perfume. The entire project consists of a video trailer, a video (faux commercial), the bottle design and print campaign. The video was directed by the notoriously-exiled director Roman Polanski and features Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams embroiled in a fierce battle over the fanciful scent. The spurious campaign attempts to isolate and imitate the hype created by the promotion of a new luxury product in the mass market.
THE BOTTLE DESIGN
Just as Marcel Duchamp created Belle Haleine: Eau de Voilette in 1921 using a Rigaud perfume bottle with an altered label Francesco Vezzoli has created a signature perfume for the contemporary moment. Greed’s label features Vezzoli in drag, photographed by Francesco Scavullo, where Duchamp appeared on his perfume bottle as Rrose Sélavy, photographed by Man Ray.
Duchamps' Faux perfume bottle and label:
Francesco Vezzoli's Greed: above: artist Francesco Vezzoli's Greed, The Perfume That Doesn't Exist, 2009 Crystal, paper and ribbon, 15 11/16 x 10 5/8 x 5 1/8 inches (40 x 27 x 13 cm)
THE INSTALLATION:
The installation at the Gagosian Gallery in Rome features the perfume in the center of the room flanked by the 'faux movie posters' (more on those below) and the faux commercial ran on a monitor:
THE GALLERY SHOW INVITE:
THE POSTERS
The series of needlework portraits of leading female figures in art history –including Tamara de Lempicka, Eva Hesse, Leonor Fini – serve as immortalized endorsements of Vezzoli’s fragrance.
The posters for the product by Francesco Vezzoli are made of inkjet, wool, cotton, metallic embroidery and custom jewelry on brocade. Each features a different famous female and measures 70 7/8 x 51 3/16 inches (180 x 130 cm):
above bottle, posters and installation photos courtesy of Gagosian Gallery
THE VIDEO / FAUX COMMERCIAL:
stills: still photos courtesy of Francesco Vezzoli Studio
GREED is just the latest castle in what the Gagosian Gallery coins Vezzoli's "ongoing preoccupation with the fundamental ambiguity of truth, the seductive powers of language, and the instability of the human persona in a series of works that explore the undisputed power of contemporary media culture."
According to Vezzoli, his art is designed to hold a mirror to society which idolizes the concept of celebrity. At the same time, Vezzoli's racy art plumbs the depths of celebrity culture itself and seemingly revels in it, with devastatingly funny results. "It's all part of this kind of style of promotional deconstruction that I've been researching for a long time. I'm not so much of a moralist trying to make a statement," he said. "I'm fascinated by celebrity. It's a phenomenon, and I don't think the whole celebrity culture is silly. It invades everything: fashion, cinema. Without stars, no event is deemed worthy of the media to cover - you need that red carpet. My work is the study of media."
About the artist: Francesco Vezzoli was born in 1971, in Brescia, Italy. He studied at the Central St. Martin’s School of Art in London from 1992 to 1995. His work has been exhibited at many institutions including: Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin (2002); Fondazione Prada, Milan (2004 and 2005); Museu Serralves, Porto (2005); Le Consortium, Dijon (2006); and the Power Plant, Toronto (2007). Vezzoli’s work has also been featured in the 26th São Paulo Biennial (2004); the 51st Venice Biennale (2005); the Whitney Biennial (2006); and the 52nd Venice Biennale (2007). He currently lives and works in Milan.
If you've got itunes, you can view Wes Anderson's Short Film, Hotel Chevalier, starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman. This is a prequel to the upcoming movie in its entirety. Click here to view.
