Page 52 - Annual Review 2008

52 / RESOuRCES
The resulting work is an extraordinary a capella cover
of Thriller in which Jackson himself is conspicuously
absent; instead, the highly constructed and idealised
figure of the pop star is represented through the
accumulative interpretations of those who consume his
music. As writer Jessica Morgan has stated: ‘Perhaps
this is the most authentic portrayal of a celebrity
possible — an amalgamation of our various forms
of identification with the virtually non-existent reality
of the star'.
CANdiCE
BREITZ
King (a portrait of Michael Jackson) 2005
Candice Breitz / King (a portrait of Michael Jackson) 2005 / 16-channel video installation:
colour, sound, 42:20 minutes / Purchased 2008. Purchased 2008 with funds from Tim Fairfax,
AM, through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery /
Image courtesy: Galleria Francesca Kaufmann, Milan
1st Aust. showing,
QAG, 2004
Candice Breitz is internationally renowned for her
sophisticated video installations, which draw on popular
culture sources including music, video and cinema.
Her work was first seen in Australia when her video
portraits of Annie Lennox and Whitney Houston were
exhibited in ‘Video Hits: Art & Music Video’ at the
Queensland Art Gallery in 2004.
In King (a portrait of Michael Jackson) the artist
investigates the age-old genre of portraiture through
a quasi-anthropological study of fandom. To produce
the work, the artist recruited Michael Jackson fans by
placing ads in newspapers, magazines and fanzines, as
well as on the internet. Once she assembled a group
of 16 participants, Breitz gave each the opportunity to
perform Jackson’s 1982 album, Thriller, individually in a
professional recording studio.