Veronique Untrashed
THE saga of Veronique’s rise to fame and immolation on the alter of popular appeal and rejection by mainstream culture does not stop with our fallout at the Bell Roberts gallery. Though the temper tantrums would last for over a year, she invariably found the wherewith-all to forgive those she perceived as betraying her vision of a narcissistic, Janus-headed pop-culture, driven to self-destruction, paranoia and drug-taking.
I was invited to a follow-up exhibition at Joao Ferrera, in which Veronique had pitched a tent and held the art-world hostage. SPEEDQUEEN & the SAMPLEGODS, and NAKED LUNCH – DISCO KITCHEN screamed the press release.
“Art detective VERONIQUE MALHERBE invites you to the shocking and funking etc etc.” in which a CD launch was combined with an art-exhibition and announcement of the immanent release of an autobiography.
Despite the labour, I found the carefully concocted fantasy slightly disturbing. Gone were the crowds that had literally cued. Instead we were treated to dinner, a very private affair in which the detritus of the last five years was dished up like a used sanitory pad.
A little harsh perhaps, but surely I am entitled to an opinion? At the peak of her career, Veronique did not have a biographer or even a catalogue to show for all the work which had epitomised the white, nineties counterculture. Despite all the media attention, not one art critic had bothered to inquire as to the progress of her “book” and the disappearance of a large body of work under the combined impact of 911 and several years of cultural antagonism.
V had even entertained notions of a “satyrical art-detective BOOK with photos – Based on life in the blast line SUCK MY BIC CAUSE I’M A LITERATE CHICK.”
For example: “Chapter 23: The Bedrock Muse, by Adrian Orwell is one of the short stories featured in the book. Many Ball-point-signed copies of the book will be on sale, so bring some.”
Forever quotable, V was being nothing less than OTT (Over The Top), downright delusional, some said she was even mad. “This blonde joke with a punchline will have you in stitches” went the press release. Despite the joke, the book remained unpublished. Some say unpalatable and unpublishable.
What V did deliver up was a smashing music CD: “world-train of thinking voyage to somewhere strange,” billed as a debut album of albums taken from non-existent bands that had suddenly gone from virtuality in her last show, to reality, and BTW a stunning photographic show produced in collaboration with Crispian Plunket, Oliver Polter and Dave Southwood.
WHO SAID THERE’S NO SUCH A THING AS A FREE LaUNCH?
“Have you always dreamt of having the opportunity of exhibiting in a famous gallery,with equally famous artists, but known it was impossible because you had absolutely no artistic talent whatsoever?
Not enough money to buy your way in?
Management immune to your advances?
We have a flexible payment policy.
IF YOU ARE PREPARED TO TAKE YOUR KIT OFF,YOU CAN MAKE AN EXHIBITION OF YOURSELF for free
“It’s NAKED LUNCH- DISCO KITCHEN time when dinner is served by young and gorgeous fusion cooking prodigy DMT, a half-indian – half scottish chef with a flair for French cuisine and cake icing.
“3 course dinner and dance. You can wash your sins away with absolution rotgut or retire to the tv room and watch soccerstar Ronaldo. Dress comfortably. Malherbe will read a chapter from her new book but promises to stay in her clothes and out of the kitchen. Naked people can watch you eat(they don’t get free lunch) and you can eat and watch naked people.
IN reality a paraphrase of the last millennium. An odyssey, literary feast and visual arts fiasco….
