This is an idea that’s been percolating in my head for some time; it was a confluence of unrelated events that all just lined up perfectly.
Last Christmas, my boyfriend and I travelled out to Los Angeles to spend the holiday with his sister and her family. One of the gifts Pilar and her husband gave us was a generous gift certificate to Amoeba Records, which we spent on both seasons of Twin Peaks. The first season was packaged in a sturdy clear plastic sleeve printed with the framed photo of Laura wearing her Homecoming Queen crown, and I promptly hung that up on our living-room wall.
When My boyfriend and I bought our king-sized bedframe, the packing materials included two 16″x16″ squares of styrofoam, about three-and-a-half inches deep. I saw art-supply potential, and couldn’t bring myself to throw them out. I was already thinking about a bas-relief of the framed portrait.
One of my co-workers, an incredibly talented artist herself, invited me to submit a piece to a juried art exhibit, Baby, It’s Cold Outside… , “about how you do/do not define, dismiss, despise, and/or devote yourself to ‘feminism.’” I especially liked the guideline to “free to offend, just be mindful as to whom you piss off.” The August 31 submission date gave me a hard-and-fast deadline, and I always work best under a deadline.
A perfunctory google search on David Lynch and feminism gave me the “hook” I needed to make the case for my concept fitting the show’s theme: tigerbeatdown’s blog post What Is Going On In This House? Or, In Defense of Laura Palmer:
The figure of the beautiful virgin – Homecoming Queen, cheerleader, Good Girl – is a huge part of this particular patriarchy’s erotic consciousness. We fetishize the Good Girl and her purity, and we fetishize the idea of defiling that purity – often, but not always, by force – and the idea that there’s a dirty little slut in there, hungry and waiting for you, if you can just find it. Twin Peaks is, to a huge degree, about those two fetishes and how closely linked they are, and what betrayal and evil is inherent in playing that out on the bodies of actual young women. This, if I’m not missing something, is something we feminists have been harping on about for at least fifty or sixty years.
When I began googling for hi-res versions of that photo, the results flooded back with a different—equally iconic—image of the character, one which I was definitely more fascinated by the idea of capturing in three-dimensions. Especially after Jamie reminded me of our friend Becca’s costume several Halloweens ago (at Man Ray, which dates us all bit): she came as Laura, wrapped in plastic bags with stick-on rhinestones, gel “frost,” and body glitter icing her face, eyebrows, and eyelashes.
I was late to Twin Peaks; when we were growing up, my mom wouldn’t even let us watch Beverly Hills, 90210 or The Simpsons, declaring the first too risqué, and the second “a bad influence.” Lynch’s series was beyond the pale. I discovered it several years ago, borrowing VHS cassettes from indie rental shop Hollywood Video. During the months I worked on this piece, I decided to watch Fire Walk With Me and both seasons of the show, in the space of two very weird weekends.
The styrofoam was an awful material to work in, little static-electric beads creating a ragged surface and getting absolutely everywhere. A week into the process, I had to relent and buy a us a vacuum cleaner. But as the details became finer, I refined my technique, moving from an actual kitchen knife down to razorblades and sandpaper, finally purchasing a beautiful hobbyist’s box set of Xacto knives which could slice cleanly through the styrofoam balls. I used up an entire 8 oz. bottle of Mod Podge in the first smoothing coat, and continued laying layers down, with layers of paint between, to level out the bumpy surface and give it that damp sheen. Wood putty and spackling paste helped smooth the surface of her face, and forgave slips of the blades. There’s still a roughness, though, the effect of her being carved from stone.
Initially, I planned to decoupage vintage magazine ads from the late 80s beneath the surface of the plastic: Love’s Baby Soft, Virginia Slims, images that targeted women, just as insidious as—if less overtly evil then—the forces which plagued Laura. But it was too much; the piece didn’t need that heavyhanded commentary awkwardly forced onto it. I was also going to actually cover my hand-carved “plastic” with clear plastic sheeting (as evidenced by the draping on many of the photos below), but my boyfriend passionately vetoed that idea: he saw it as covering up all my “beautiful hard work.” I’m glad for it.
The frame was inspired by Boxing Helena, months before I found out that David Lynch’s own daughter had directed that film; I had completely forgotten that Sherilyn Fenn was its star. The original concept was to stencil “Packard Saw Mill” on its sides; I might still.
Now, here’s what you’ve all been waiting for: pictures!
Created with flickr slideshow.
If you’d like to see her in person, she’ll be on display at the Washington Street Art Center located at 321 Washington Street in Somerville, from December 5–26, 2009.
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