Georgina Starr
Encyclopedia
Georgina Starr is an English
artist and one of the Young British Artists
notable for her "pop style installations and films." Her major works have been described as "large-scale installations combining video and sculpture" to create emotional stories about lost or fragile phenomena.
and lives and works in London
. She studied at Jacob Kramer school of Art,
Middlesex Polytechnic, attended the Slade School of Art from 1990 until 1992 and the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunst in Amsterdam
from 1993 to 1994. She works with found and collected objects to construct autobiographical installations. She has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions, including the Tate Gallery
in London, the Museum of Modern Art
in New York, the Venice Biennale
, and in galleries in cities throughout the world including Basel, Tokyo, Ghent, Brisbane, and Barcelona.
She has been identified as a member of the "second wave" of Young British Artists
. Her work has been described as "quirky, personal, heartfelt, confessional, paranoid" by Momus
. Momus explained that Starr saw her paranoia as a "magical state of mind" and a means to enter "the realm of the imaginary." According to Momus, Starr explained that she taped the soundtracks from rented horror films, even though she doesn't usually watch horror films, and then walked around London
with the soundtrack playing on a Walkman so that "the creepy music and sudden violent sound effects somehow lifting everything onto another level of reality."
Starr's Static Steps in 1992 featured a small paper figure reacting physically to "random static electricity" and added a voice-over recording as if the movements were rehearsed dance steps. The idea was to re-describe banal and "often random aspects of modern life" so they seem important.
In 1993 Starr's video Crying was described as "euphoric" and made a viewer want to "climb through the screen and give her a cuddle." In 1995, Starr's Small Planet featured videos, photographs, objects and drawings based loosely on a Jerry Lewis
film called Visit to a Small Planet
which evoked many emotional states. In 1996, Starr made Hypnodreamdruff which began as a film script, but turned into a "multi-screen, multi-media installation incorporating a nightclub, bedroom, kitchen and caravan," according to a description on her website. It was exhibited in Amsterdam
in 1995, London
and New York in 1996, and Wolfsburg, Germany in 1997. Hypnodreamdruff was a complex narrative of the "interior life" of one of three fictional people sharing an apartment and was described as a "rowdy yet poignant portrait of the alienation and fantasy of everyday life." A video she made of herself was described in one report as "grizzling". Critic Dan Glaister of The Guardian reported that Catherine Lampert of the Whitechapel Gallery was surprised that no women were nominated for the 1996 Turner prize; Lampert said "Tracey Emin and Georgina Starr have both produced notable work this year (1996)."
In 1998, critic Tim Hilton of The Independent described Starr's Tuberama as an "expensively constructed" model tube train which went around the gallery while a cartoon film by Starr played simultaneously with "unpleasant music."
Critic Momus described Tuberama as "the musical of the short story of the cartoon strip of the painting, is about sitting on the tube and feeling a bit paranoid about the people opposite you: are they pervs, are they farting, and who would be their leader if the train broke down for a week?"
Starr's project I am a record, according to a website description, dissected and revealed "the artist's personal, geographic and imagined environment" and featured a wide variety of recordings made since age five including the rumbling of a broken radiator which she thought was "speaking to her," "re-enactments of secretly recorded stranger's conversation," field recordings, singing voices, paranormal telephony, family dinner conversations, "air eddies transformed into music," and other unusual sounds.
It's an audio collection featuring painted cover artwork with posters, inserts and booklets.
In 2007, art critic John Zinsser described his reaction to Starr's show Theda in New York: "It was a show that revealed itself to me very slowly" which was "full of surprises" and that the personality of the show was "very strong" and "beguiling in its nuttiness." Zinsser described Starr as a "video artist" whose work featured a clumsily-written book about a "movie that you didn't see" which was "written in a faux academic style". Critic Gregory Volk compared Starr to writers like Emerson
in making a "meter making argument" and that her show was "so out there" and "crazily eccentric" and "crazily adventurous" and, as a result, "utterly convincing." In 2008, Guardian critic Adrian Searle witnessed Starr's performance in which she smashed statues. During a performance at the opening of her show, Starr tipped a statue of a partly clothed woman from its plinth, so that it broke in pieces on the floor. The noise of their destruction was "satisfying and loud" although hard to see; temporarily, everyone present stopped drinking while this happened. What was left? "A pile of neatly swept fragments and dust," according to the critic.
Starr was a judge for the Northern Art Prize in 2008. The Guardian reported in November 2008 that Starr was dating artist Paul Noble
who paints "debauched imaginary townscapes." Starr and Noble traveled to Palestine
and both worked at the Institute for Art Palestine. Artist Andrew Palmer credits Starr for influencing his thinking about art. In November 2008, Starr put her video and installation pieces from her project Bunny Lake and reproduced them on a Vespa
scooter in a project to raise funds for charity.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
artist and one of the Young British Artists
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
notable for her "pop style installations and films." Her major works have been described as "large-scale installations combining video and sculpture" to create emotional stories about lost or fragile phenomena.
Life and work
Starr was born in LeedsLeeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
and lives and works in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. She studied at Jacob Kramer school of Art,
Middlesex Polytechnic, attended the Slade School of Art from 1990 until 1992 and the Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunst in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
from 1993 to 1994. She works with found and collected objects to construct autobiographical installations. She has exhibited widely in group and solo exhibitions, including the Tate Gallery
Tate Gallery
The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
in London, the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York, the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
, and in galleries in cities throughout the world including Basel, Tokyo, Ghent, Brisbane, and Barcelona.
She has been identified as a member of the "second wave" of Young British Artists
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
. Her work has been described as "quirky, personal, heartfelt, confessional, paranoid" by Momus
Momus (artist)
Nick Currie , more popularly known under the artist name Momus , is a songwriter, blogger and former journalist for Wired...
. Momus explained that Starr saw her paranoia as a "magical state of mind" and a means to enter "the realm of the imaginary." According to Momus, Starr explained that she taped the soundtracks from rented horror films, even though she doesn't usually watch horror films, and then walked around London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
with the soundtrack playing on a Walkman so that "the creepy music and sudden violent sound effects somehow lifting everything onto another level of reality."
Starr's Static Steps in 1992 featured a small paper figure reacting physically to "random static electricity" and added a voice-over recording as if the movements were rehearsed dance steps. The idea was to re-describe banal and "often random aspects of modern life" so they seem important.
In 1993 Starr's video Crying was described as "euphoric" and made a viewer want to "climb through the screen and give her a cuddle." In 1995, Starr's Small Planet featured videos, photographs, objects and drawings based loosely on a Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis is an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team of Martin and Lewis...
film called Visit to a Small Planet
Visit to a Small Planet
Visit to a Small Planet is a 1960 Paramount Pictures film starring Jerry Lewis, based on a play by Gore Vidal. It was released on February 4, 1960.-Plot:...
which evoked many emotional states. In 1996, Starr made Hypnodreamdruff which began as a film script, but turned into a "multi-screen, multi-media installation incorporating a nightclub, bedroom, kitchen and caravan," according to a description on her website. It was exhibited in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
in 1995, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and New York in 1996, and Wolfsburg, Germany in 1997. Hypnodreamdruff was a complex narrative of the "interior life" of one of three fictional people sharing an apartment and was described as a "rowdy yet poignant portrait of the alienation and fantasy of everyday life." A video she made of herself was described in one report as "grizzling". Critic Dan Glaister of The Guardian reported that Catherine Lampert of the Whitechapel Gallery was surprised that no women were nominated for the 1996 Turner prize; Lampert said "Tracey Emin and Georgina Starr have both produced notable work this year (1996)."
In 1998, critic Tim Hilton of The Independent described Starr's Tuberama as an "expensively constructed" model tube train which went around the gallery while a cartoon film by Starr played simultaneously with "unpleasant music."
Critic Momus described Tuberama as "the musical of the short story of the cartoon strip of the painting, is about sitting on the tube and feeling a bit paranoid about the people opposite you: are they pervs, are they farting, and who would be their leader if the train broke down for a week?"
Starr's project I am a record, according to a website description, dissected and revealed "the artist's personal, geographic and imagined environment" and featured a wide variety of recordings made since age five including the rumbling of a broken radiator which she thought was "speaking to her," "re-enactments of secretly recorded stranger's conversation," field recordings, singing voices, paranormal telephony, family dinner conversations, "air eddies transformed into music," and other unusual sounds.
It's an audio collection featuring painted cover artwork with posters, inserts and booklets.
In 2007, art critic John Zinsser described his reaction to Starr's show Theda in New York: "It was a show that revealed itself to me very slowly" which was "full of surprises" and that the personality of the show was "very strong" and "beguiling in its nuttiness." Zinsser described Starr as a "video artist" whose work featured a clumsily-written book about a "movie that you didn't see" which was "written in a faux academic style". Critic Gregory Volk compared Starr to writers like Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
in making a "meter making argument" and that her show was "so out there" and "crazily eccentric" and "crazily adventurous" and, as a result, "utterly convincing." In 2008, Guardian critic Adrian Searle witnessed Starr's performance in which she smashed statues. During a performance at the opening of her show, Starr tipped a statue of a partly clothed woman from its plinth, so that it broke in pieces on the floor. The noise of their destruction was "satisfying and loud" although hard to see; temporarily, everyone present stopped drinking while this happened. What was left? "A pile of neatly swept fragments and dust," according to the critic.
Starr was a judge for the Northern Art Prize in 2008. The Guardian reported in November 2008 that Starr was dating artist Paul Noble
Paul Noble
Paul Noble is a British artist, born in 1963 in the village of Dilston, Northumberland. He studied at Humberside College of Higher Education and Sunderland Polytechnic , before moving to London in 1987. He was one of the five founder members of the co-operative who formed the City Racing gallery...
who paints "debauched imaginary townscapes." Starr and Noble traveled to Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
and both worked at the Institute for Art Palestine. Artist Andrew Palmer credits Starr for influencing his thinking about art. In November 2008, Starr put her video and installation pieces from her project Bunny Lake and reproduced them on a Vespa
Vespa
Vespa is an Italian brand of scooter manufactured by Piaggio. The name means wasp in Italian.The Vespa has evolved from a single model motor scooter manufactured in 1946 by Piaggio & Co. S.p.A...
scooter in a project to raise funds for charity.
Awards
- 1992, British Institute Award for Sculpture
- 1992, Duveen Travel Award
- 1993, Women Art Award, Austria
- 1993, VSB Bank Award
- 1993, Uriot Prize
Books
- "Georgina Starr", Ikon Gallery 1998.
- "The Bunny Lakes", Emily Tsingou Gallery 2002.
- "THEDA", 2007
Works
- Whistle 1992
- Crying 1993
- Erik 1994
- Visit to a Small Planet 1994
- The Nine Collections of the Seventh Museum 1994
- Getting to Know You 1995
- The Party 1995
- Hypnodreamdruff 1996
- Tuberama 1998
- The Bunny Lake Series 1999-2004
- Big V 2005
- Theda 2007
- I Am a Record 2009