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[blueboy]

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Gagosian Gallery is proud to present First Point, a new film by Richard Phillips.

First Point—Phillips' third film—is a collaboration between the artist, Lindsay Lohan, and the legendary surf filmmaker Taylor Steele. The film visits two locations: a private beach surf compound and Malibu's iconic Surfrider Beach, accessible to the public, which boasts some of California's most perfect waves. First Point presents a postmodern take on the surf film genre through an abstract framework of imagery in which the actress engages in cinema performance tropes inspired by contemporary film noir. Eerie nocturnal imagery is juxtaposed with surf sequences performed by female pro-surfer Kassia Meador (who is featured as Lohan's acknowledged stunt double) and by Lohan herself.




First Point inverts the format of the iconic adrenalized surf film. The diversions of beach culture-which typically comprises a small portion of footage-dominate the film. Adding to the reversal of tableaux are unplanned confrontations between the actress and a predatory fleet of paparazzi snapping her as she surfs onto Malibu shores.



Phillips and Steele explore the psychologically charged tension that arises when a sport of individualism is pursued by a celebrity persona stepping in and out of a characterized state. What results is an existential hall of mirrors wherein fractured identity emerges as Lohan assumes a range of emotionally charged characters with varying degrees of similarity to her own pop-culture persona. In the tradition of the surf genre, the film is free of dialogue and features an original score by Thomas Bangalter (Daft Punk, Enter the Void, Irreversible).

Born in Massachusetts in 1962, Richard Phillips lives and works in New York. He has exhibited his work in individual and group exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe, including important survey exhibitions and catalogues at Le Consortium, Dijon in 2004; Kunsteverin, Hamburg in 2002, and Kunsthalle Zurich in 2000. He is represented in important public and private collections such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; the Denver Museum, CO; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami; UBS Paine Webber Art Collection, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Tate Modern, London; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

2012 will mark Phillips's first exhibition at Art Unlimited and the world premiere of First Point.

Art Unlimited and Art Statements VIP Opening
Monday, June 11, from 4pm to 7pm
By invitation only

Public days
Thursday, June 14, 2012 to Sunday, June 17, 2012
From 11am to 7pm

source -gargosian

^official press release  

[blueboy]

capture

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Lindsay Lohan’s New Wave

In “First Point,” his new short film, the artist Richard Phillips combines two of his current obsessions: surfing and Lindsay Lohan. Phillips has worked with the actress and tabloid goddess before, on a 90-second video for Neville Wakefield’s “Commercial Break,” which had a very brief run during the 54th Venice Biennale.

And his studio is lined with several larger-than-life paintings of Lohan that came directly out of that particular project. But don’t call Lohan his muse. Lohan, Phillips insists, is his collaborator as much as anyone in the stellar cast of people who worked on the film, including the legendary surf filmmaker Taylor Steele; the professional surfer Kassia Meador, who performs mesmerizingly as Lohan’s body double; the editor Jay Rabinowitz; and Thomas Bangalter, one half of the electro duo Daft Punk, who composed the ominously swelling score.

As the trailer implies, “First Point” is at once a surf film and a film noir, an exploration of the California dream and the Hollywood nightmare, worlds that Lohan doesn’t have to pretend to straddle on screen. But no doubt the question on everyone’s lips when “First Point” has its premiere next week at Art Unlimited, the curated section of the Art Basel fair, will be: “Is it art?” And that is just fine by Phillips. “It’s just like in my paintings,” he says. “Because of the actor and the popular culture dimensions of the project, it will give people — especially people in the art world — a real sense of instability with regard to my intentions. Is it a film? Is it an art video? It refuses to announce itself as either.”

source - tmag NYtime

 

[João Ker]

http://tmagazine.blo...ohans-new-wave/

the video, from Tmag site. I don't know if it's only with me, but there's no audio Oo

Edited by João Ker, June 04 2012, 4:44 PM.

[fabuLLous fan01]

i continue to be fascinated by Lindsay.

[bellarosemand]

João Ker, on June 04 2012, 4:24 PM, said:

http://tmagazine.blo...ohans-new-wave/

the video, from Tmag site. I don't know if it's only with me, but there's no audio Oo

theres background music playing but lindsay doesn't say anything if thats what you mean

[Rudi]

If the video is on youtube can someone post the link? It's better to share on websites. Thanks very much! <3

[bellalilo]

Beautiful

Exclusive Video: Lindsay Lohan Stars in Richard Phillips’s New ‘Surf Noir’ Art Film, First Point
By Charlotte Cowles

http://nymag.com/dai...d-phillips.html

[coasterfreak18]

 

[blueboy]

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"There isn't really anybody who occupies the lens to the extent that Lindsay Lohan does," says Richard Phillips, who cast the actress in his latest short film, First Point (2012), which will premiere at Art Unlimited, part of Art Basel 2012. "Something happens when she steps in front of the camera. There is this magnetic energy."



The 5-minute, 34-second film, co-directed by legendary surf filmmaker Taylor Steele, depicts Lohan first during the day—running across the water in a gray wetsuit, lying in repose on the sand in a white bikini—and then at night, in flashes of light that light up her freckled face against a pitch-black background. Modeled on classic surf films such as The Endless Summer (1966), and Free and Easy, an underground documentary filmed in the late 1960s, as well as Lost Highway (1997), a modern take on noir by David Lynch, the footage has something of the feel of a color-saturated screen test by Andy Warhol, or a sequence from The Rape of the Sabine Women by Eve Sussman. "It begins in the tradition of surf films—there is music, and the ocean—and then it goes into this very dark, noir nocturnal dimension," Phillips explained. "I was exploring the tropes of both forms."



Shot on both public and private beaches in Malibu, the film also features surfing shots using Kassia Meador, a world-class surfer, as a body double for Lindsay, as well as a score by Thomas Bangalter, one-half of Daft Punk. "It's not quite film, and it's not quite video art, and it's not quite action," Phillips said. "Thankfully, art has the room for that."



First Point is not Phillip's first collaboration with Lohan, who reached out to him after she saw an unauthorized portrait he did of her. Soon after, they began texting about making more paintings together. When a friend asked him to make a film for "Commercial Break," a series presented by the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture at the 54th Venice Biennale, he asked Lohan to be his subject. The resulting work, Lindsay Lohan (2011), a 90-second clip also shot in Malibu with Steele, is a precursor to First Point.



One of the most striking things about the film is how ethereally beautiful Lohan appears on the screen. Frequently derided by the media, the actress's unique good looks often become obscured by her public persona.
But with his camera, Phillips somehow makes a claim that despite all of Lohan's public troubles, she is one of contemporary culture's great icons. "She's embodied Marilyn Monroe, and now she's embodying Elizabeth Taylor, but she's arguably more beautiful than both of them," Phillips said. "She is very aware of the way that an icon is constructed, and that's something that is unique."


"She's still alive, and she's more powerful than ever."

source - interviewmagazine

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Thank you. Now we can fast forward to your latest work. Did you call Lindsay Lohan and say, "Hey, LiLo, I have an idea!" The movie was our idea, together! For the first one, we only had one day to work together. It was so productive and so much fun that we both agreed - with my co-director Taylor Steele - we should definitely continue to work together. Our schedules worked out in August, and we met up in LA and got a location sorted out and commenced.


But how did it start? Did you send her a note, saying, "Dear Lindsay, I am a famous artist and you should work with me." [Laughter.] I couldn't tell Lindsay Lohan I was [famous], I mean our fame levels relatively... honestly. It's a whole other world. What happened was, I was in the midst of making a White Cube [gallery] exhibition in London with a number of her acting peers in it. I was asked to do a painting for 2x2 in Dallas for AmFar and the Dallas Museum of Fine Art. I was interested in Lindsay [as a portrait subject], but she didn't fit in the London show. So I made a painting of her for 2x2, and a friend - the film's creative director, Dominic Sidhu - was with Lindsay in LA. He had the image of my painting on his iPhone. She said, "Wow that's great, who made that?" And Dominic told Lindsay, "You guys should work together on a painting." So we were put in touch, and we started texting. Then [curator] Neville Wakefield asked if I'd make a short film for him... I'd never even made an iPhone movie! No art school movies, nothing. But I said yes, and I thought, "Well, maybe Lindsay will be in it." I texted her and she agreed.


This film has a lot of surfing in it. How did Lindsay do on the waves? She was fantastic, because she's surfed a few times before. But then we had [pro surfer and artist] Kassia Meador on set as Lindsay's body double. Having both of them together was just amazing. They became fast friends, and I think anybody would be inspired to be in the water with Kassia because she has such a great vibe.


So anytime we see surfing, it's Kassia? No, a lot of it is Lindsay. She paddled right out there. She's very athletic and got super into it.



And how's your surfing? It's good! I've been surfing for about 12 years. But my co-director, Taylor Steele, is one the most famous surf filmographers of all time - we met because I was one of the judges of the New York Surf Film Festival! So when I had no idea how to make a film, I said, "Taylor, would you be interested in collaborating with me and Lindsay Lohan in Malibu?"



That's hard to turn down. What will this movie be like?We added this kind of noir, nighttime component to the film, which is about 50% of the movie. So that takes the idealism of surf culture in a dark place.


Lindsay is wearing Cynthia Rowley for Roxy wetsuits in the movie, isn't she? Yes, Cynthia gave us her brand new line, and I think there's some iconic imagery in the movie because of it. I don't know who would wear the suits better than Lindsay, honestly. She's a knockout.


You seem very focused. Do you ever get the painting equivalent of Writer's Block? That's a very interesting question. What happened with making film, what I realized is, the demands of making film from storyboard to conception to filming - all the post production and color mastering and soundtrack - getting all these elements together was very demanding. It made the balance between that work and painting quite intense. So it's not so much Painter's Block, but it's about maintaining energy levels at the highest possible level and still being healthy.



Last question: You're the only two-time returning judge on Work Of Art. Do you think new artists can benefit from being on Reality TV? I do think it's an interesting platform for emerging artists. i dont know if that means there will be high levels of success in the longterm for them, but I think art is changing and expanding so much that any opportunity to address the public about one's art ideas is a good thing. Ultimately, it all depends what you bring to it, whether you're on TV or in the middle of nowhere by yourself. But I think ultimately, it's a good thing.


--FARAN KRENTCIL
Richard Phillips premieres 'First Point', presented by Gagosian Gallery at Art Unlimited, the curated part of Art Basel, June 11th.
source - nylonmag

 

[bellarosemand]

I really like Richard Phillips I just get a Good vibe from him they both work so well together I hope they do another film one day, he seems to really admire and respect Lindsay as an artist it all seems very genuine and sweet

[blueboy]

promo pics

 

[blueboy]

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Richard Phillips Teams Up With Lindsay Lohan, Taylor Steele, Thomas Bangalter In 'First Point'


On June 11th, Phillips will premier "First Point," his short film starring LiLo, at Art Basel in Switzerland, which is being presented by Gagosian Gallery. Clocking in at 5 minutes and 34 seconds, "First Point" is a sort of "surf noir" offering, influenced by David Lynch and Jim Freeman. Since this is Phillips' first attempt at film, he roped in the surf filmmaker Taylor Steele to co-direct. Thomas Bangalter from Daft Punk did the ominous score, while Jay Rabinowitz -- who worked on "Requiem for a Dream" and "The Tree of Life," edited the short film. We interviewed Phillips to find out more about the film and his work.

HP: Why did you decide to make this film?
RP: I had been a judge at the New York Surf Film Festival and I had the great fortune of meeting Taylor Steele (there). When I was asked to make a film for the Venice Biennale, I had never made a film before. I called up Taylor and asked if he would collaborate. Lindsay had that moment free, so everything came together. We shot at Malibu, but we shot in front of an infinity pool. In August, we had this idea to create a surf-noir film, where we would combine an omnious, taking the good vibes energy of the surf film and turn it on its head. My favorite film score is the one Thomas Bangalter created for "Irreversible." The soundtrack absolutely defines the daymare into nightmare feeling you get from the film.


HP: This is billed as a "surf noir" film. What were your influences?
RP: It was inspired by 90s noir of "Lost Highway." The other film was “Free and Easy” by Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman. The style of the surfing imagery comes from that underground surf film. Not so much the "Endless Summer," but that surfers could understand. You balance Lindsay’s iconic presence with power and surfing -- creating those oppositions. In surfing you have action scenes vs. scenes on the beach. The whole thing comes unhinged as it folds into this nocturnal realm, and Lindsay enacts the nightmarish noir person.
Since it’s appearing at Art Unlimited (at Basel), the idea of flow and what people could see in a week’s time governed the necessity to keep it a short film. The dialogue is Tomas’ soundtrack, which is quite present as a voice in the film.


HP: How was Lindsay involved, exactly?
RP: The way that the collaboration has gone through the art director and sound and Lindsay’s participation, it’s not a portrait of but an agreed upon collection of efforts. It’s a more powerful, deliberate sense of beauty and determination. It’s a repudiation of what I said earlier of "wasted beauty." This is the undoing of the artist and muse relationship. It’s a conscious effort between myself, my co-director, and Lindsay. I had a lot to learn from her when it came to working in the film environment. It was how she was able to work in front of the camera, to create these personas.


HP: What is the art world afraid of?
We’re at an odd point, where art is checked in terms of what is definable. When we can’t determine what is art -- when you get to that point where we’re not sure, that’s the greatest likelihood that we’re actually experiencing something great. But I think that’s what the art world is most aftraid of, because you lose that security. Then we don’t know how to assign evaluation, whether it’s cultural or otherwise. In a way, this film was meant to be a destabilizing artwork. It’s not a film and it’s not a video piece. It exists in another area. It’s a zone where we were free to work.

source -huffingtonpost

 

[fabuLLous fan01]

ah,those freckles.


 

[allisonp1]

 

[gregair13]

I got a point for her right here.

[blueboy]

dude!!!! ^ over my .....

"day 2 install check! <3<3<3 Lindsay!!"

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"This tackles a different part of who she is and what she is and how she projects herself," "First Point" director Richard Phillips told ABCNews.com. "It's not fashion photography, it's not mainstream film."


Phillips and Lohan met in May 2011 when they filmed their first short, in which Lohan confronts a pool, a beach, and a portrait of herself with trepidation. At the time, the actress' schedule was a mess of court dates stemming from a shoplifting case and a probation violation. Nevertheless, Phillips said, her car pulled into the Malibu, Calif., mansion where they were shooting "exactly on time, and we were able to get right to work." When they wrapped, Lohan, Phillips, and his crew promised to reunite for a sequel, of sorts. They shot "First Point" in Malibu last August.

They started on a private beach. After a day of filming, "on Lindsay's suggestion, we filmed in public, at Surfrider Beach," Phillips said. Paparazzi swarmed. They appear as Rodin-like figures in one scene, clumped together, cameras aloft, watching Lohan watching them. "When you see those images of the paparazzi, it's difficult to believe whether or not they're actors," Phillips said. "That was her way of showing us what that dimension is like."




Though "First Point" borrows from '60s surf films and features a wetsuit-clad Lohan carrying a board, the actress doesn't actually ride any waves. Professional surfer Kassia Meador stands in as Lohan's body double, tip-toeing down the board with the grace of a ballerina while the sea roils beneath her.


While Phillips said "First Point" has no narrative, one could purport, as an idyllic day turns nightmarish and Lohan lunges through the dark like she's being chased, that she's running from everything she's become famous for: arrests, courtroom appearances, unflattering paparazzi shots. "First Point" appears to be an attempt to get further away from all of that -- let's paint a new portrait of Lindsay to distract from all the unpleasant ones. But, Phillips said, she's different from problem-prone muses of the past.

"For those artists like Andy Warhol who were representing Marilyn Monroe, it was a passive relationship," he said. "Marilyn had no connection or role in it, no stake in it. The difference here is that Lindsay was a part of the production of this imagery. She's conscious of it. She gets the nuances of creating media."


Phillips counted Lohan's ability to portray icons like Monroe, who she posed as for New York Magazine in 2008, among her greatest strengths. She's currently filming "Liz & Dick," which is set to air on Lifetime later this year. To those who doubt whether Lohan can do Taylor justice, Phillips offered this:

"If you really think about it, it's amazing that those absolute, colossal icons of our culture could be possessed by a single person, in her young years, with her entire career in front of her. She's literally the only person that can do that."

The artist's work with the actress isn't over. In September, New York's Gagosian gallery will host the U.S. premiere of "First Point" in an exhibit that will also feature Phillips' oil paintings of Lohan. Might there be more collaborations down the road? "I'd love to," Phillips said, "but her schedule is starting to fill up."

 

[blueboy]

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This film is the second installment of Phillips and Lohan’s collaboration: the actress appeared first in a two-minute film directed by the artist last summer. In it, she stares out at an empty Malibu beach, plunges into an infinity pool, and lies listlessly in the sun. It was what the artist called a “motion portrait” of a young woman at a transitional moment in her life, told through a series of scenes so beautifully curated that they looked like mini-paintings. Shortly after it premiered, it caused a mini-explosion on the Internet.

First Point takes Lohan one step further, now placing her in the center of a visually rich mini-narrative, in which she occupies a more developed character than in the original film. According to the artist, it was Lohan’s own suggestion that they leave their perch at a private Malibu mansion and film on its most popular (and very crowded) public beach, Surf Rider.

One shot follows Lohan as she is swarmed by real paparazzi. “When Lindsay goes to the beach,” he says, “It’s an entirely different situation than practically anyone else. There is a dawn-of-the-dead type reality where paparazzi start showing up.” There’s a rare moment in the film when Phillips captures these unwitting paparazzi as they try to capture Lohan. This is the kind of thing that the artist loves: turning forms of mediated culture on top of themselves, and distorting the viewer’s perception of what’s real and imagined.


The resulting film, which will only be released online in a series of 30-second trailers, has a “daymare into nightmare” quality to it, which makes it simultaneously beautiful and deeply frightening. Phillips’s influences are diverse: there are hints of Brigitte Bardot in Contempt as Lohan spreads out on the sand like a 1950s pinup; David Lynch’s abstract 1990s L.A.-noir films inspired a few haunting nocturnal scenes; and Phillips and his co-director, Taylor Steele, also cited underground surf films of the 1960s such as Free and Easy.

From the minute the film begins, there’s an insidious feeling that something is about to happen: a seagull circles the beach, a photographer descends, Lohan turns around, surfboard in hand, in shock. Yet nothing ever does. The film’s eerie music, which is an original score by Thomas Bangalter, follows the star from her perch on the sand into the water, where she tears through waves on a surfboard. (For this, Phillips recruited Kassia Meador, one of the top female surfers in the world, to act as her body double.)

Though Phillips insists Lohan wasn’t his “muse” in the traditional sense of the word, there exists a clear compatibility between artist and protagonist. Phillips, an artist working in the vein of pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Tom Wesselmann, is a painter of celebrities, and has long been fascinated by the challenge of portraying our modern icons as works of art. Lohan, simultaneously, has become an icon on her own. Her face is synonymous with something else, and its ubiquity in magazines and on the Web makes it practically wallpaper in our everyday lives. Now, she’s primed to portray another legend—Elizabeth Taylor, in Liz & Dick, an upcoming Lifetime biopic. Yet unlike Liz, Phillips says, Lohan “is not a passive participant in art. She thinks about art and is involved in it.”

There is, of course, a natural challenge in presenting the sometimes-skeptical world of art critics with a film that stars a face as ubiquitous (and polarizing) as Lohan’s. People will question, Phillips says, whether or not this is art. But, he laughs, “When you think about Dada and the great moments in Modern Art, it’s always the sense of when you’re not sure that art is most likely to be occurring.”

Daft Punk + Lindsay = Groolsome  

[blueboy]

bigger version

Legendary/Best Surfer in the World

source - designcollector

 

[blueboy]

Quote

ESPN.com: How did you get this gig?
Kassia Meador: I have an art dealer friend that knew Richard [Phillips] from some of his shows. She's surfed with me since I was a kid, so when Richard needed someone she immediately asked me if I was available. The next day I was filming at Malibu's Surfrider Beach.

Why did you want to be involved with a film?
I'm always interested in projects like this, and that's why I jumped at this opportunity. I enjoy collaborating with people who I think have wonderful vision, and I hope to continue doing so. I've also loved working on projects that are a little bit different than the norm. This film couldn't have been more perfect.


How was it working with Lindsay Lohan?
Beforehand, I didn't know what to expect. I don't know anything about pop culture, nor do I watch TV, and had only heard things about [Lindsay] that had trickled down through the grapevine. Once we got out there, though, I was totally stoked on her positive vibes. She was really interested in surfing, so I gave her a few pointers. By the end of the day, she was able to get up for a couple.

What was Phillips' take on surfing?
He comes from a different world -- one that I can relate to as a surfer and an artist. I got a glimpse of how he views life and how he works on a project and also how he plays [he surfs, too]. Phillips comes at this thing from a more artistic, creative angle and I haven't seen surfing ever broadened to such a different context. It feels refreshing to see the sport I love so much illustrated in a different light.

So you're pleased with how the footage turned out?
I'm super stoked on what I've seen so far. They were able to slow everything down and show the nuances of my footwork and what it is that's so beautifully subtle about longboarding. The equipment they used, the way they were shooting, the images they were after -- all of it was so specific to the project that I think it will create something very unique that's never been done in the surfing world.

The film is only five minutes long. How long did it take to shoot?
About four or five hours a day for a couple of days. I don't really look at it as stunting because I was just surfing. I would go do that anyway, whether or not someone was filming me.

source - espn

 

[blueboy]

Lindsay Lohan stars in "First Point" by Richard Phillips (Photo by Lucy Hogg)

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I never thought Googling the words "Blake Gopnik" and "Lindsay Lohan" could return any hits. Thanks, however, to a work the starlet is in at the Basel art fair (and to this little note about it), my Google dreams could come true. The artist Richard Phillips has done a six-minute video projection of this blond bombshell surfing, and suntanning, and then in flight on the beach at night. (Read the Phillips interview by my colleague Isabel Wilkinson.)


The cynical take would be that the entire artwork is riding Lohan's fame, just because it can, and that once again a gorgeous young woman with problems is being exploited for her media value. All the cliches of starlet-in-trouble are there, from her looking soulfully off into the distance (when she isn't batting her eyes at the camera), to her finding solace in a solitary encounter with nature (solitary, except for the film crew, and the body-double doing her surfing), to her fleeing paparazzi, to the video's final moment, at night, where she's running from some nameless horror (one female viewer saw echoes of snuff films). And then all this gets underlined and italicized by a portentously romantic score. The entire video could pass as a high-end ad for perfume or beachwear.


On the other hand ... those commercial and cultural cliches are so overloaded, it seems safer to read the work as some kind of commentary on them. Lohan is so clearly Marilyn-ish in this piece, that there's a sense of her deliberately inhabiting the role of star-crossed blonde, so as to take control of it. And after Warhol, can any artist's encounter with a starlet be read as entirely straight? There's a sense that it's not only Lohan who is on display in Phillips's work; it's also us, in the audience, and our insane and inane fascination with her, and with the cliches she delivers.