Working archive of collected James Dean materials
For James (Jimmy) Dean, 2023. Hand-carved plexi-glass. 36 x 48 inches.
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Pulling from press photographs of James Dean’s funeral in 1955, I redrew an image of his tombstone surrounded by flowers sent by family, friends, and fans. Carved by hand with a Dremel from a reflective sheet of black plexiglass, I wanted to spend time cutting away at the surface, alluding to the act of carving a tombstone. I wanted to imbue the surface and image with care. As a viewer nears the work, they are caught in its reflective matrix, seeing themselves within the image.
Decades after his death, Dean’s grave is a site of continued visitation. For many fans it is the closest they can come to connecting with the star, and for some it’s an object to be obtained. Fans and visitors have been known to chip off pieces of the tombstone, creating a relic that has come in contact with the star. This chipping away at the grave has been so harmful as to necessitate its replacement multiple times in the decades since Dean’s death.
Paid for by German Readers of Film-Review, 2023. Hand-carved plexi-glass. 40 x 60 inches.
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This work is a continuation of my imagery grappling with James Dean’s gravesite and funeral. The featured image shows a large floral wreath displayed on an easel with a ribbon that reads: “Paid for by German Readers of Film-Review.” I think this attribution to German fans of Dean is an incredible act of homage and I wanted to ‘make permanent’ their act of devotion with this carving. Given the slight relief of the cut plexi-glass matrix, the work can be copied through rubbing, alluding to the act of one making a grave rubbing, a way to take that experience with them.
Morrissey at the grave of James Dean, 2023-2024. Lenticular prints. Each 4 x 5 inches.
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In his music video Suedehead singer-songwriter Morrissey travels to Fairmount, Indiana, the hometown of actor James Dean. In a series of vignettes that fade into one another, Morrissey visits different locations formerly traversed by the ill-fated film star, including the town’s main street, Dean’s High School, and gravesite. I wanted to replicate the extreme fade-ins-and-outs of the music video and approximate the experience of watching it in the gallery. As a viewer walks along the wall, the sequence of prints begins to fade into one another and mirror the video’s cuts.
Morrissey is in a way the ultimate corrupted fan. He channels the ideals pursued or embodied by Dean to an extreme. In 1983, before his time with the band The Smiths, Morrissey published, James Dean is Not Dead a book looking at the actor and his own fascination with death, parsing out the range of aftereffects Dean’s death had on fans. The text reads as a manifesto by Morrissey on Dean and his long afterglow.