Ben Walters 

Highlights from John Waters’s Rear Projection exhibition

Rear Projection, John Waters's new exhibition of photos, prints and sculptures, has just opened at the Marianne Boesky gallery in New York. The cult director gives Ben Walters an exclusive guided tour of the highlights
  
  


John Waters show: John Jr, from the John Waters Rear Projection show
John Waters on John Jr, one of the works in his Rear Projection exhibition: “This is the childhood portrait my parents had of me in their home growing up and I now have in my house. I remember posing for this picture and I was nuts then. But I was just figuring it out and I didn’t really mind being nuts, and so I wanted to remember that. That moustache of course I didn’t have at nine-years-old but I should have. In my mind it was festering.” Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
John Waters show: Children Who Smoke, from the John Waters Rear Projection show
Children Who Smoke: “None of these are real. A lot of people say to me, ‘What movie is that in?’ Shirley Temple looks so sultry there. When I grew up, you could only see a movie once. It was a memory. What I’m trying to do is even beyond that: make up a new special effect and take it home and that way the movie is yours and nobody else’s.” Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
John Waters show: Self Portrait #4, from the John Waters Rear Projection show
Self Portrait #4 (Town Crier): “This was the most masochistic day of my life. I live in Provincetown in the summer, where there’s a town crier, and I’m obsessed by him. The new one let me borrow his outfit. I felt so pitiful. We got the photographer all set up and I hid in the back but I had to walk across the lawn where I live and my landlady just looked up. She didn’t say anything.” Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
John Waters show: Versailles, from the John Waters Rear Projection show
Versailles: “This is a garden-suburban apartment that I pass every day in Baltimore, called Versailles. I couldn’t believe it so it put it right next to the real one. You can see how things get filtered down. I called them so much because I wanted them to answer the phone, ‘Versales’. But they didn’t.” Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
John Waters show: Guzzle, from the John Waters Rear Projection Show
Guzzle: “If you like to drink, it looks nice in your house and if you’re in AA, I think it’s a good reminder not to. So it’s either end of drinking. It’s not in the middle. If you’re a moderate drinker, this piece will not speak to you.” Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
John Waters show: Rush, from the John Waters Rear Projection show
Rush: “This is, of course, Rush. It’s a sex drug but I used to do it on roller coasters and it’s really fun. So I just wanted to celebrate that along with La Mer [a high-end brand of moisturiser also depicted in the exhibition as an outsized sculpture]. The more of this I do, the more La Mer I need.” Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
John Waters show: Pet, from the John Waters Rear Projection show
Pet: “I’m scared of all dogs. I don’t dislike dogs, I understand people love their dogs but dogs see me and hate me. I don’t know why. So to me every dog looks like that. I’m trying to show you how I feel.” Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
John Waters show: Control, from the John Waters Rear Projection show
Control: “I first saw Ike and Tina Turner in 1964 in Baltimore. They looked very much like this and I loved them like this. Of course, he was a terrible husband. He beat her and she was right to get away. She lives in Switzerland now, she’s Jackie Kennedy, but when she was with him, she sang so great. And she wore those Spring-o-Lator shoes that Divine and I copied.” Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
John Waters show: Ham, from the John Waters Rear Projection show
Ham: “To me this is a piece for a very, very confident actor to hang in their house. But a lot of Jewish people I know say it speaks to them. If you can’t change something they use against you, embrace it and make fun of it and it’s gone.” Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
John Waters show: Hetero Flower Shop, from the John Waters Rear Projection show
Hetero Flower Shop: “This asks the question: can a male heterosexual be a good florist? The results speak for themselves. I would be so mad if I got these.” Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
John Waters show: Necro, from the John Waters Rear Projection show
Necro: "Even dead, we can still hope to be discovered." Photograph: © John Waters/Marianne Boesky Gallery
 

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