Diary of a Star
Diary of a Star is a critical take on blogging that appropriates selections from The Andy Warhol Diaries, a dictated memoir posthumously published by Warhol's friend Pat Hackett. The artist rewrites selected entries in the form of a blog to comment on the tradition of diaries, ideas of private and public, celebrity, and the activity of web-surfing as a new social space.
Diary of a Star is a critical take on blogging that appropriates selections from the Andy Warhol Diaries.
The Andy Warhol Diaries was edited by Pat Hackett from a set of entries primarily used as Tax expense records. After Warhol's death on February 22, 1987 Hackett realized that the tax logs contained rich material that could become the ultimate portrait of Warhol. The result is a set of diary entries that tell us about Warhol's idiosyncrasies.
The online project Diary of a Star consists of two blogs that are juxtaposed, showing selections of Warhol’s diary and my comments on his selections. The way the project works is I select an entry from Warhol's diary and type it verbatim on the blog to the right called "diary." I create links of people and places that Warhol mentions. I then comment on the people and/or the entry itself on the blog to the left called "meta diary." What I write always depends on how I relate to Warhol's entry as well as what I learn while surfing the links his entry provided. The entries correspond by date.
I rewrite selected entries from Warhol’s diary in the form of a blog to comment on the tradition of diaries, the private and public, the idea of a celebrity and her life as a public persona, and the activity of web-surfing as part of a new social space. In Diary of a Star I re-evaluate Warhol’s thoughts and create my own narrative alongside his, which functions as a critical extension of his own aesthetic of constant exposure.