Ultra Violet in her studio
“I am Woman of the future,” said Ultra Violet, the 83-year-old French-born artist, author, lover to Dali and muse Warhol, when she met TWR NYC roving reporter Ali, at the Volta Art Fair NY to preview (and Instagram) her latest immersive installation: ‘Selfie.’
“When I do an interview they always want to know about my past, but I’m really not interested – I lived it. I am interested in what I can do tomorrow. My work is always about a new vision. And to be new you have to use the technology of the day.”
Ironically the past of UV and her peers was prophetic of today’s digital culture and has come full circle with ‘Selfie’ as it responds to the epidemic of the shared digital self-portrait, which is now a global expression of Warhol’s Famous for Fifteen minutes. Which incidentally Ultra Violet wrote a book about.
The ‘Selfie’ installation is a series of colored baroque mirrors where viewers are asked to describe their own reflection in the work. According to UV, at the Miami Art Fair this evolved from description to introspection, saying, “the work captures a person…to me the works are spiritual. Adding, “I am switching the artist to the viewer – the viewer is the one building the self.”
Ultra Violet’s outward self was built on a recipe for fame created in part by Warhol. “He told me I have to change my name to something more memorable, said UV. Adding, “the Violet was because you need a look – it’s not so much that you create something artificial, but if you want to be famous you just can’t look like anyone else.”
Ultra Violet has studios in both New York and Nice, and has an exhibition coming up at the Dillon Gallery. April 24 – May 24 2014, New York
