Street Photography

Saturday 3 March 2012

The Pandemonia Phenomenon

Origional article The Huffington Post

The smell of latex fills the air as a leggy blonde teeters towards you on sky-high heels. Dark glasses shade her eyes, a small dog is nestled under her arm. All around cameras snap away.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was just another socialite with a taste for kink. In fact neither her, nor her dog Snowy, are real. Confused? So are most people. Crane.tv meets Pandemonia, a latex-clad post-pop performance artist whose image was created to act as a living commentary on the cult of celebrity.



Pandemonia first grabbed media attention when she attended a Tracey Emin show at The White Cube Gallery in 2009. She has gone from crashing high-profile parties and fashion shows to being formally invited and often sitting on the coveted front row. Her picture is constantly being taken. By making her image real the media has validated a parody on itself. Who better to act as the embodiment of cultural commentary in a society that revolves around celebrity than a 7ft plastic blonde?

Pandemonia"OK" by Pandemonia

There is more than a nod to fetish as her outfits, or 'art creations', are entirely made from rubber, chosen for its shiny unreal properties. These political expressions that point to a manufactured ideal, hide the identity of the artist underneath. Pandemonia has become an entity unto herself, a phenomenon whose fate is now firmly out of its creator's hands, and should therefore never be coloured by a relationship to a mere mortal. It seems the mystery will continue until we are no longer interested.

Text by Angelica Pursley for Crane.tv

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