TEDGlobal 2005
Alison Jackson: An unusual glimpse at celebrity
Filmed:
Readability: 4.6
733,443 views
By making photographs that seem to show our favorite celebs (Diana, Elton John) doing what we really, secretly, want to see them doing, Alison Jackson explores our desire to get personal with celebs. Contains graphic images.
Alison Jackson - Artist
Why can't you make it through the checkout line without flipping through page after page of pregnant celebs in Us magazine? Alison Jackson knows why. And she photographs the people you think you recognize doing what you really want to see. Full bio
Why can't you make it through the checkout line without flipping through page after page of pregnant celebs in Us magazine? Alison Jackson knows why. And she photographs the people you think you recognize doing what you really want to see. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:13
I'm a contemporary artist and I show in art galleries and museums.
0
1000
4000
00:17
I show a number of photographs and films,
1
5000
3000
00:20
but I also make television programs, books and some advertising,
2
8000
4000
00:24
all with the same concept.
3
12000
2000
00:26
And it's about our fixation with celebrity and celebrity culture,
4
14000
5000
00:31
and the importance of the image:
5
19000
3000
00:34
celebrity is born of photography.
6
22000
3000
00:37
I'm going to start with how I started with this concept seven years ago,
7
25000
5000
00:42
when Princess Diana died.
8
30000
2000
00:45
There was a sort of a standstill in Britain
9
33000
3000
00:48
the moment of her death,
10
36000
3000
00:51
and people decided to mourn her death in a sort of mass way.
11
39000
5000
00:57
I was fascinated by this phenomenon,
12
45000
2000
00:59
so I wondered:
13
47000
2000
01:01
could one erase the image of Diana, actually quite crudely and physically?
14
49000
3000
01:04
So, I got a gun and started to shoot at the image of Diana,
15
52000
4000
01:08
but I couldn't erase this from my memory
16
56000
4000
01:12
and certainly it was not being erased from the public psyche.
17
60000
5000
01:17
Momentum was being built.
18
65000
2000
01:19
The press wrote about her death in rather, I felt, pornographic ways --
19
67000
4000
01:23
like, "Which bit of artery left which bit of body?"
20
71000
3000
01:26
and "How did she die in the back of the car?" --
21
74000
3000
01:29
and I was intrigued by this sort of mass voyeurism,
22
77000
4000
01:33
so I made these rather gory images.
23
81000
5000
01:40
I then went on wondering whether I could actually replace her image,
24
88000
5000
01:45
so I got a look-alike of Diana
25
93000
4000
01:49
and posed her in the right positions and angles
26
97000
3000
01:53
and created something that was in, or existed in, the public imagination.
27
101000
5000
01:58
So people were wondering: was she going to marry Dodi?
28
106000
3000
02:01
Was she in love with him?
29
109000
2000
02:03
Was she pregnant? Did she want his baby?
30
111000
3000
02:06
Was she pregnant when she died?
31
114000
3000
02:09
So I created this image of Diana, Dodi and their imaginary mixed-race child
32
117000
3000
02:13
and this image came out, which caused a huge public outcry at the time.
33
121000
5000
02:19
I then went on to make more comments on the media and press imagery,
34
127000
5000
02:24
so I started making reference to media imagery --
35
132000
3000
02:27
made it grainy, shot through doorways and so on and so forth --
36
135000
4000
02:31
to titillate the public or the viewer further
37
139000
2000
02:33
in terms of trying to make the viewer more aware of their own voyeurism.
38
141000
6000
02:39
So, this is an image of Diana looking at Camilla kissing her husband,
39
147000
4000
02:43
and this was a sequence of images.
40
151000
3000
02:46
And this gets shown in art galleries like this, as a sequence.
41
154000
4000
02:50
And similarly with the Di-Dodian baby imagery --
42
158000
4000
02:54
this is another art gallery installation.
43
162000
4000
02:59
I'm particularly interested in how you can't rely on your own perception.
44
167000
3000
03:02
This is Jane Smith and Jo Bloggs, for instance,
45
170000
5000
03:07
but you think it's Camilla and the Queen,
46
175000
2000
03:09
and I'm fascinated how what you think is real isn't necessarily real.
47
177000
6000
03:15
And the camera can lie,
48
183000
3000
03:18
and it makes it very, very easy
49
186000
3000
03:22
with the mass bombardment of imagery to tell untruths.
50
190000
5000
03:27
So, I continued to work on this project of how photography seduces us
51
195000
8000
03:35
and is more interesting to look at than the actual real subject matter.
52
203000
7000
03:42
And at the same time, it removes us from the real subject matter,
53
210000
5000
03:47
and this acts as a sort of titillating thing.
54
215000
5000
03:52
So, the photograph becomes this teaser and incites desire and voyeurism;
55
220000
6000
03:58
what you can't have, you want more.
56
226000
4000
04:02
In the photograph, the real subject doesn't exist
57
230000
3000
04:05
so it makes you want that person more.
58
233000
4000
04:09
And that is the way, I think, that celebrity magazines work now:
59
237000
3000
04:12
the more pictures you see of these celebrities,
60
240000
4000
04:16
the more you feel you know them,
61
244000
3000
04:19
but you don't know them
62
247000
2000
04:21
and you want to know them further.
63
249000
1000
04:24
Of course, the Queen goes to her stud often to watch her horses ...
64
252000
4000
04:28
watch her horses. (Laughter).
65
256000
5000
04:36
And then I was sort of making imagery.
66
264000
3000
04:39
In England there's an expression: "you can't imagine the Queen on the loo."
67
267000
3000
04:42
So I'm trying to penetrate that.
68
270000
3000
04:45
Well, here is the image.
69
273000
3000
04:48
All this imagery was creating a lot of fuss
70
276000
3000
04:51
and I was cited as a disgusting artist. The press were writing about this,
71
279000
6000
04:57
giving full pages about how terrible this was.
72
285000
4000
05:01
Which I found very interesting that it was going full cycle:
73
289000
3000
05:04
I was making comments about the press
74
292000
3000
05:07
and about how we know facts and information only by media --
75
295000
4000
05:11
because we don't know the real people;
76
299000
3000
05:14
very few of us know the real people --
77
302000
3000
05:17
but it was going back into the press
78
305000
3000
05:20
and they were publicizing, effectively, my filthy work.
79
308000
3000
05:23
So, these are broadsheets, tabloids, debates were being had all about this work,
80
311000
6000
05:29
films were being banned before people had actually had the look at the work,
81
317000
4000
05:33
politicians were getting involved --
82
321000
2000
05:35
all sorts of things -- great headlines.
83
323000
3000
05:39
Then suddenly, it started to get on front pages.
84
327000
4000
05:43
I was being asked and paid to do front covers.
85
331000
3000
05:46
Suddenly I was becoming sort of acceptable,
86
334000
2000
05:48
which I found also fascinating.
87
336000
3000
05:51
How one moment -- it was disgusting --
88
339000
3000
05:54
journalists would lie to me to get a story or a photograph of me,
89
342000
3000
05:57
saying my work was wonderful,
90
345000
2000
05:59
and the next minute there were terrible headlines about me.
91
347000
3000
06:02
But then this changed suddenly.
92
350000
3000
06:06
I then started to work for magazines and newspapers.
93
354000
5000
06:11
This was, for example, an image that went into Tatler.
94
359000
2000
06:13
This was another newspaper image.
95
361000
4000
06:17
It was an April fool actually, and to this day some people think it's real.
96
365000
3000
06:20
I was sitting next to someone at dinner the other day,
97
368000
3000
06:23
and they were saying there's this great image of the Queen
98
371000
2000
06:25
sitting outside William Hill.
99
373000
2000
06:27
They thought it was real.
100
375000
2000
06:29
I was exploring, at the time, the hyperbole of icons --
101
377000
4000
06:33
and Diana and Marilyn -- and the importance of celebrity in our lives.
102
381000
4000
06:37
How they wheedle their way into the collective psyche
103
385000
3000
06:40
without us even knowing,
104
388000
3000
06:43
and how that should happen.
105
391000
3000
06:46
I explored with actually dressing up as the celebrities myself.
106
394000
3000
06:50
There's me as Diana --
107
398000
4000
06:54
I look like the mass murderer Myra Hindley, I think, in this one. (Laughter).
108
402000
3000
06:57
And me as the Queen.
109
405000
2000
06:59
I then continued on to make a whole body of work about Marilyn --
110
407000
5000
07:04
the biggest icon of all --
111
412000
2000
07:06
and trying to titillate by shooting through doorways and shutters and so on and so forth,
112
414000
5000
07:11
and only showing certain angles to create a reality that, obviously,
113
419000
3000
07:14
is completely constructed.
114
422000
5000
07:19
This is the look-alike, so the crafting elements of this is completely enormous.
115
427000
4000
07:23
She looks nothing like Marilyn,
116
431000
3000
07:26
but by the time we've made her up and put wigs and makeup on,
117
434000
3000
07:29
she looks exactly like Marilyn,
118
437000
4000
07:33
to the extent that her husband couldn't recognize her --
119
441000
3000
07:37
or recognize this look-alike -- in these photographs,
120
445000
2000
07:39
which I find quite interesting.
121
447000
2000
07:41
So, all this work is getting shown in art galleries.
122
449000
3000
07:44
Then I made a book.
123
452000
3000
07:47
I was also making a TV series for the BBC at the time.
124
455000
3000
07:51
Stills from the TV series went into this book.
125
459000
3000
07:55
But there was a real legal problem because it looks real,
126
463000
3000
07:58
but how do you get over that?
127
466000
5000
08:03
Because obviously it's making a comment about our culture right now:
128
471000
3000
08:06
that we can't tell what's real.
129
474000
3000
08:09
How do we know when we're looking at something whether it's real or not?
130
477000
3000
08:12
So, from my point of view, it's important to publish it,
131
480000
6000
08:18
but at the same time it does cause a confusion --
132
486000
3000
08:21
intentional on my behalf,
133
489000
4000
08:25
but problematic for any outlet that I'm working with.
134
493000
3000
08:29
So a big disclaimer is put on everything that I do,
135
497000
4000
08:33
and I made narratives about all the European or Brit celebrities
136
501000
5000
08:38
and comments about our public figures.
137
506000
6000
08:44
You know, what does Tony Blair get up to in private with his fashion guru?
138
512000
11000
08:55
And also dealing with the perceptions that are put about
139
523000
3000
08:59
Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, the links that were put about pre-Iraq war.
140
527000
6000
09:05
And what is going to happen to the monarchy?
141
533000
7000
09:12
Because obviously the British public,
142
540000
5000
09:17
I think, would prefer William to Charles on the throne.
143
545000
5000
09:22
And it's that wish, or that desire, that I suppose I'm dealing with in my work.
144
550000
5000
09:27
I'm not really interested in the celebrity themselves.
145
555000
2000
09:29
I'm interested in the perception of the celebrity.
146
557000
3000
09:32
And with some look-alikes, they are so good
147
560000
4000
09:36
you don't know whether they're real or not.
148
564000
5000
09:43
I did an advertising campaign for Schweppes, which is Coca-Cola,
149
571000
4000
09:47
and so that was very interesting in terms of the legalities.
150
575000
5000
09:52
It's highly commercial.
151
580000
3000
09:56
But it was a difficulty for me -- because this is my artwork;
152
584000
2000
09:58
should I do advertising? -- at the time.
153
586000
4000
10:04
So I made sure the work was not compromised in any way
154
592000
3000
10:07
and that the integrity of the work remained the same.
155
595000
3000
10:10
But the meanings changed in the sense that with the logo on,
156
598000
4000
10:14
you're closing all the lines of interpretation down to selling a product
157
602000
6000
10:20
and that's all you're doing.
158
608000
2000
10:22
When you take the logo off, you're opening up the interpretations
159
610000
5000
10:28
and making the work inconclusive,
160
616000
4000
10:33
opposed to conclusive when you are advertising.
161
621000
3000
10:37
This image is quite interesting, actually,
162
625000
2000
10:40
because I think we made it three years ago.
163
628000
2000
10:42
And it's Camilla in her wedding dress, which, again,
164
630000
5000
10:47
nearly got re-used now, recently prior to her wedding.
165
635000
5000
10:53
Tony Blair and Cherie. And again, the legalities -- we had to be very careful.
166
641000
3000
10:56
It's obviously a very big commercial company, and so this little,
167
644000
5000
11:01
"Shh -- it's not really them,"
168
649000
3000
11:05
was put on the side of the imagery.
169
653000
4000
11:09
And Margaret Thatcher visiting Jeffery Archer in jail.
170
657000
3000
11:12
I then was asked by Selfridges to do a series of windows for them,
171
660000
4000
11:16
so I built a sauna bath in one of their windows and created little scenes --
172
664000
8000
11:24
live scenes with look-alikes inside the windows,
173
672000
3000
11:27
and the windows were all steamed up.
174
675000
2000
11:29
So, it's Tony Blair reading and practicing his speech;
175
677000
3000
11:32
I've got them doing yoga inside there with Carole Caplin;
176
680000
3000
11:36
Sven making out with Ulrika Jonsson, who he was having an affair with at that time.
177
684000
3000
11:39
This was a huge success for them
178
687000
3000
11:42
because the imagery got shown in the press the day after
179
690000
4000
11:46
in every single newspaper, broadsheets and tabloids.
180
694000
4000
11:50
It was a bit of a road stopper, which was problematic
181
698000
4000
11:54
because the police kept on trying to clear away the crowds,
182
702000
3000
11:57
but huge fun -- it was great for me to do a performance.
183
705000
5000
12:02
Also, people were taking photographs of this,
184
710000
4000
12:06
so it was being texted around the world extremely quickly, all this imagery.
185
714000
6000
12:12
And the press were interviewing, and I was signing my book. (Laughter).
186
720000
8000
12:21
Further imagery. I'm making a new book now with Taschen
187
729000
3000
12:24
that I'm working on really for a sort of global market --
188
732000
4000
12:28
my previous book was only for the U.K. market --
189
736000
3000
12:31
that I suppose it could be called humorous.
190
739000
4000
12:35
I suppose I come from a sort of non-humorous background
191
743000
2000
12:37
with serious intent,
192
745000
3000
12:40
and then suddenly my work is funny.
193
748000
5000
12:45
And I think it doesn't really matter that my work is considered humorous, in a way;
194
753000
6000
12:51
I think it's a way in for me to deal with the importance of imagery
195
759000
5000
12:56
and how we read all our information through imagery.
196
764000
3000
12:59
It's an extremely fast way of getting information.
197
767000
5000
13:04
It's extremely difficult if it's constructed correctly,
198
772000
3000
13:07
and there are techniques of constructing iconic imagery.
199
775000
4000
13:11
This image, for example, is sort of spot-on
200
779000
2000
13:13
because it exactly sums up what Elton may be doing in private,
201
781000
5000
13:18
and also what might be happening with Saddam Hussein, and George Bush
202
786000
7000
13:25
reading the Koran upside-down.
203
793000
5000
13:30
For example, George Bush target practice --
204
798000
3000
13:33
shooting at Bin Laden and Michael Moore.
205
801000
2000
13:35
And then you change the photograph he's shooting at,
206
803000
3000
13:38
and it suddenly becomes rather grim and maybe less accessible. (Laughter).
207
806000
4000
13:42
Tony Blair being used as a mounting block,
208
810000
5000
13:47
and Rumsfeld and Bush laughing with some Abu Ghraib photos behind,
209
815000
4000
13:51
and the seriousness, or the intellect, of Bush.
210
819000
5000
13:56
And also, commenting on the behind the scenes --
211
824000
4000
14:00
well, as we know now -- what goes on in prisons.
212
828000
3000
14:04
And in fact, George Bush and Tony Blair
213
832000
3000
14:07
are having great fun during all of this.
214
835000
2000
14:11
And really commenting, you know,
215
839000
3000
14:14
based on the perception we have of the celebrities.
216
842000
3000
14:17
What Jack Nicholson might be up to in his celebrity life,
217
845000
3000
14:21
and the fact that he tried to ... he had a bit of road rage
218
849000
2000
14:23
and golf-clubbed a driver the other day.
219
851000
5000
14:29
I mean, it's extremely difficult to find these look-alikes,
220
857000
3000
14:32
so I'm constantly going up to people in the street
221
860000
2000
14:34
and trying to ask people to come
222
862000
8000
14:42
and be in one of my photographs or films.
223
870000
2000
14:45
And sometimes asking the real celebrity,
224
873000
2000
14:47
mistaking them for someone who just looks like the real person,
225
875000
3000
14:50
which is highly embarrassing. (Laughter).
226
878000
2000
14:53
I've also been working with The Guardian on a topical basis --
227
881000
2000
14:56
a page a week in their newspaper --
228
884000
4000
15:00
which has been very interesting, working topically.
229
888000
2000
15:02
So, Jamie Oliver and school dinners;
230
890000
3000
15:06
Bush and Blair having difficulty getting alongside Muslim culture;
231
894000
3000
15:09
the whole of the hunting issue,
232
897000
2000
15:12
and the royal family refusing to stop hunting;
233
900000
4000
15:16
and the tsunami issues; and obviously Harry;
234
904000
4000
15:21
Blair's views on Gordon Brown, which I find very interesting;
235
909000
4000
15:25
Condi and Bush.
236
913000
5000
15:30
This image I've decided to show having a reservation about it.
237
918000
3000
15:33
I made it a year ago. And just how meanings change,
238
921000
8000
15:41
and there were a terrible thing that has happened,
239
929000
3000
15:44
but the fear is lurking around in our minds prior to that.
240
932000
3000
15:47
That's why this image was made one year ago,
241
935000
3000
15:50
and what it means today.
242
938000
5000
15:55
So, I'll leave you with these clips to have a look. (Music)
243
943000
7000
17:30
Chris Anderson: Thank you.
244
1038000
1000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Alison Jackson - ArtistWhy can't you make it through the checkout line without flipping through page after page of pregnant celebs in Us magazine? Alison Jackson knows why. And she photographs the people you think you recognize doing what you really want to see.
Why you should listen
Recognizing the deep-seated need of the world public to see the Queen mum seated at the toilet, Elton John getting a colonic, and Keith Richards ironing his knickers, Alison Jackson set out to create the images that we really want paparazzi to capture. Armed with cheap photographic equipment, celebrity look-alikes, and a canny sense of what we think people are doing when we're not looking, she creates images that are equal parts belly laughs and pure scandal.
Jackson's newest book, Alison Jackson: Confidential features over 300 of her images in outrageous succession. She is also the auteur behind the popular BBC series "Double Take," which focuses on the (fake) outrageous behavior of dozens of popular British political, entertainment, and sports figures. Her biggest frustration is the penchant of her doppelgangers' real life subjects to take on behavior more outrageous than her photographs.
Alison Jackson | Speaker | TED.com