To announce the launch of the Absolut Andy Warhol Edition, Absolut has collaborated with 15 Folds to create ‘15 GIFs of Fame’, a series of digital artworks created by 15 outstanding creatives from the world of art, design, music and fashion.
The specially created artworks will be entered into The Andy Warhol Art Exchange by Absolut, the world’s largest online art exchange. At absolut.com/artexchange, Absolut provides fun and easy-to-use generative art tools, enabling anyone to be an artist, so people from around the world can unleash their creative spirits and submit their own original work. All participants will get an artwork in return from someone, somewhere in the world, with a chance to receive artworks from the 15 Folds artists. There will even be an original Andy Warhol artwork included in the exchange.
The ’15 GIFs of Fame’ artworks reflect the artists interpretation of the theme Fame, taking inspiration from all aspects of Andy Warhol’s life and career as an artist. Participants include:
1. Bobby Abley takes inspiration from his love for pop culture and the relentless pursuit of fame through instagram with a piece called ‘A million likes in 4 seconds’.
2. Fred Butler uses a quote by Dotson Radar who was a friend of Andy Warhol and quite candidly commented on perhaps the darker side of his infatuation with fame in relation to the stars he engineered from The Factory.
3. Lotte Andersen explores the fickle nature of fame with a piece entitled Flavour of the Month, summed up by the statement ‘the thing, a la mode, the craze, hip, trendy, all the rage, en vogue, happening, du jour.’
4. O Thongthai explores the theme of fame by fusing elements from her most recent jewellery collection with her unique illustrative style.
5. 15 Folds create a piece entitled Hoi-llywood, exploring our desire for icons which is as old a time itself. Drag culture forces us to re-address and subvert our expectations about our icons. Andy Warhol captured this culture through his polaroids of the New York queens. Now 15 Folds are digitising this tradition with our generation’s medium – the Gif.
6. Margot Bowman’s piece entitled ‘Special’ is all about likening fame and those who have achieved it to the idea of show ponies, and critiquing it’s two dimensional nature.
7. Sean Frank’s GIF entitled Finally Famou$, is inspired by the lengths people will go to for their 15 minutes. How far will you go to see your name in lights, and what is the price you ultimately pay?
8. Digi Fairy explore how content culture allows anyone and anyTHING to be famous for 15 secs with a piece entitled #THEinterPET
9. Gordon Magnin looks at the fleeting nature of fame; like a ray of sun reflecting from a passing car, a flash of light immediately vanishing, into anonymity and memory.
10. Ignasi Monreal explores the way in which people are consumed by the idea of fame and adapt to the pressures
11. James Kerr imagined how a young, up-and-coming Andy Warhol might have hustled the self-promotion game, and almost immediately thought of Warhol standing on the side of the road, in a banana suit as a sign spinner. Often, the road to fame is wrought with a lot of hard work, courage and, at times, plenty of embarrassment.
12. Mehdi Lacoste’s GIF is an interpretation of people trying to grab a piece of fame, however short lived it is. The piece is entitled ‘It’s not your brain, it’s just the flame’.
13. Naomi Shimada looks at the phenomenon of reality TV stars and how they embody everything that the word FAME means today – lack of substance, obsession, money and a healthy dose of soul selling. She asks – ‘where are we heading and how do we change up the energy flow?’
14. Nimrod creates the ‘Warhol Band’, a GIF depicting four people in a band wearing animated Warhol faces before going on stage.
15. Tessa Edwards’ GIF entitled ’15 minutes of Privacy’ subverts Andy Warhol’s prophetic ’15 minutes of fame’, where actually we will all be famous all the time according to way culture presents the individual as a ‘brand’ or public profile via the internet. Since it is so difficult to escape our own public profiles, in the future perhaps we will only be granted 15 minutes of privacy instead.
15Folds is a desire to support the creativity and expression of our generation. We are proud to be working with Absolut who share in the same tradition and values,”
Margot Bowman
About 15 Folds
15 Folds is an online art experiment devised by three friends Margot Bowman, Sean Frank and Jolyon Varley. Each month begins with a gif, posted by the house on a given theme. From this point selected creatives take it in turns to post their own original gifs to the site in 48 hour intervals – each drawing reference only from the post before.i Lacoste’s GIF is an interpretation of people trying to grab a piece of fame, however short lived it is. The piece is entitled ‘It’s not your brain, it’s just the flame’.
13. Naomi Shimada looks at the phenomenon of reality TV stars and how they embody everything that the word FAME means today – lack of substance, obsession, money and a healthy dose of soul selling. She asks – ‘where are we heading and how do we change up the energy flow?’
14. Nimrod creates the ‘Warhol Band’, a GIF depicting four people in a band wearing animated Warhol faces before going on stage.
15. Tessa Edwards’ GIF entitled ’15 minutes of Privacy’ subverts Andy Warhol’s prophetic ’15 minutes of fame’, where actually we will all be famous all the time according to way culture presents the individual as a ‘brand’ or public profile via the internet. Since it is so difficult to escape our own public profiles, in the future perhaps we will only be granted 15 minutes of privacy instead.
15Folds is a desire to support the creativity and expression of our generation. We are proud to be working with Absolut who share in the same tradition and values,”
Margot Bowman
About 15 Folds
15 Folds is an online art experiment devised by three friends Margot Bowman, Sean Frank and Jolyon Varley. Each month begins with a gif, posted by the house on a given theme. From this point selected creatives take it in turns to post their own original gifs to the site in 48 hour intervals – each drawing reference only from the post before.
The concept nods to a diverse set of influences, from the Correspondence Art movement of the 60s to the Surrealist parlour game Exquisite Corpse and functions like a monthly communal art show in which everyone’s work is interdependent.
Recent contributors include celebrated visual artists Reed & Rader, jeweller Dominic Jones, Tumblr sensation Dain Fagerholm and musicians Spector.
15folds.com
