"(Sharon) chose me." ICON Exhibit

Got this in an email today:

JEREMY KENYON LOCKYER CORBELL’S mixed media art series- ICON: THE LIFE & STYLE OF SHARON TATE: ICON is a three day mixed media exhibition honoring the life and style of Sharon Tate on the 40th anniversary of her passing. The exhibition featuring Corbell’s new work will be held at High Profile Productions in Culver City. This art & fashion based event will showcase the never before revealed wardrobe of the late Sharon Tate. Watch the ICON teaser here: www.jeremycorbell.com .



Corbell’s ICON mixed media art exhibition will include:
- Unique mixed media prints embedded in windows from the 1960’s
- One of a kind large format media prints
- Mixed media canvas works
- Polaroid darkroom installation
- Video installations
- Limited edition and signed books
- Limited edition and signed canvas posters
- Limited edition ICON apparel
- ICON documentary pre-premiere teaser
- Live polaroid photo shoot
- Sharon Tate Shrine

(Sounds interesting, wish I could go...)

There was also a short interview with the artist:

QUESTION: Tell us about the upcoming ICON exhibit?

ICON is my latest creation. I have created a huge body of mixed media work for it. For the last year and a half I have been building this series which will premiere this August in Culver City. It was my intension to make my art accessible to everybody. In this series I believe I have succeeded. Every person will be able to walk away a collector after the opening. I think it is going to blow peoples minds.

QUESTION: Why did you choose Sharon Tate?

She chose me. The idea of shooting Sharon’s wardrobe was brought to me by a friend, and then after meeting Debra Tate (Sharon’s sister), everything just made sense and I realized the importance of the story
I could tell through my art. What was appealing about the project was how my perception instantly changed once I did a little research. I initially equated (as everybody does) SHARON TATE = CHARLES MANSON. After some research I became mystified by the fear and paranoia surrounding Sharon’s tragic death. I realized that within that fear was an opportunity, as FEAR is simply an expectation of the future… exactly the same as HOPE. They are both expectations you see… on opposite sides of the spectrum. One is positive and one is negative… most importantly is the fact that perception is a simple choice. I figured that within Sharon’s spirit there must be something captivating… something pure and beautiful. This is the only way such fear and mental chaos could emerge in our consciousness from her death. There has been a polarity going on here. I choose to discover the truth within the untruth, the light within the dark, and the life within the death. This is why Sharon’s spirit began to fascinate me. This is why our reaction to her fascinates me. Is Sharon only an ICON because of her death? Or did her death reveal a principle of her spirit that we all can identify with. Did her death just clarify who she was and what she meant in life. There is something in this that we all relate to…even if it is just the acknowledgment of fear.

It is my aim to move from a consciousness of fear to hope. To discover not only who Sharon was in LIFE, STYLE and LOVE; but also to understand what it was about her extraordinary spirit that symbolized our hopes and dreams as a culture then, and how it relates to us today.



QUESTION: Do you have a personal favorite Sharon Tate movie moment or even
fashion moment in her real life (For instance I like the part in Valley of the Dolls when Jennifer (played by Sharon Tate) is forced to travel to Paris to work in “Art Films” to help pay for Tony’s medical bills)?


I learned a lot from the way Sharon moved. Rather than her theatrical movies (because she is acting) I prefer to watch her home videos. This is what I did in research for my series ICON. I looped about 2
hours of her silent home videos and projected them on a wall. I just watched her on the phone, talking, laughing and walking. This allowed me to read between the lines. The moments when she didn’t know the camera was on her, or she just forgot… those were the most interesting and beautiful. She was simply captivating. She seemed pure, innocent and radiant. Just as everybody has described her.

Other than that her wedding dress was pretty amazing. She got married in this cute little miniskirt of a wedding dress… that was pretty radical especially for the time. The only thing cooler I can imagine is if she was 8 and 1/2 months pregnant and in the miniskirt wedding dress. That is how I want my wedding to be. Sharon’s sister told me that Sharon used to wear leather straps around her ankles and big toes so people would think she was wearing sandals. This way she could go barefoot just about anywhere. She had her own style… and I respect that. She seemed to have a radical freedom of mind that others fear texplore…same with her husband Roman Polanski.

This is exactly what I've been discussing in this blog. Sharon Tate = Manson ? That needs to change!

I read someone else's blog yesterday and I agree completely with dcornelius (from http://dcornelius-babylon.blogspot.com/2009/08/sharon-tate.html) :

Sharon Tate was a rising star in Hollywood. She was married to Roman Polanski, who she met when he directed her in The Fearless Vampire Killers. She was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in Valley of the Dolls. She was a 60's symbol of beauty and sexuality. On 9 August 1969, forty years ago next Sunday, she, along with four other people - close friends who were at the house that night while Polanski was away in London - was murdered in her home by the followers of Charles Manson. She was stabbed sixteen times. She was eight and a half months pregnant. Her murder, I think, closed the 60's and brought us the 70's.

I tend to crawl through the internet, picking things up and poking at others, until something explodes in front of me and spiral through link after link until a full picture - sometimes wondrous, other times horrifying - rises up. I knew about the Tate and LaBianca killings and the Manson family's murderous rampage, of course. Who doesn't? But it was only recently, as I was researching a few things for a short story I am writing, that I followed an incredibily convoluted trail of links and the Sharon Tate story opened up to me, and then I spent the evening stunned almost to tears by what I was reading. She was pregnant. She was 26. She was gorgeous. She was lovely and loved. And they destroyed her.

I don't want to treat her as a symbol. I want to preserve her humanity. But if anyone's death symbolizes the senselessness and the injustices that so often torment this mortal shuffle, it may be Sharon Tate's.

In these images she looks nearly immortal. There are crime scene and coroner's photographs on the internet. I found some of them. I won't post them or encourage finding them for yourself. Beauty can be destroyed - viciously, senselessly, and without mercy. It can be left broken. It is the task of the living to preserve the beautiful, however... not to shrink from evil but to stand against it. And so I stand and celebrate beauty.

That is the way I see it also. Lets celebrate Sharon as an Icon; of beauty, fashion, life, and love. I think that is the way she would want it.