April 30th, 2010 / 12:38 pm
Music & Web Hype

Representation Without Taxation

I find myself obsessed with two things this morning, the first being the viral video of Lin Yu Chun singing a flawless rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RgXC303Q5A&feature=related

The second artist Alexa Meade, who paints human flesh so that the subject appears to be a painting rather than a living person; the backgrounds, too, are painted to look like a painting, thereby making a photo look painted:

What is the literary equivalent to Lin Yu Chun’s uncannily flawless performance? How do we complete these analogies; what are the X’s in

“Lin Yu Chun : Whitney Houston” as “Writing : X” ? Or the more direct, “Photograph : Painting that looks like a photograph” as “Writing : X” ?

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10 Comments

  1. voorface

      What about someone like Glenn Brown? In writing maybe Excercises in Style?

  2. Matthew Salesses

      These paintings are creepy, Alissa. They lie in the uncanny valley, no?

  3. Alissa Nutting

      I suppose I’m getting at what happens when an imitation, if that’s not too reductive of a word when applied to art (which i’m sure it is but I get to use a less-than-par word b/c it’s Friday; this less-than-par word is the Casual Friday equivalent of me getting to wear jeans to the office) is so good that the line of authenticity gets fractured. And I’m a pretty big fan of fracturing.

      The fabulous Glenn Brown! I wish the titles of his paintings were instead the titles of books I’ve written, like “On Hearing the Death of My Mother,” “Deep Throat,” and “Tart Wit, Wise Humor.” He actually does have one called “The Andromeda Strain.” Nice intersection there.

      Good point, Matthew…maybe one possible X can just be Uncanny Valley. It’s a pretty great net. And perhaps a better analogy is Lin Yu Chun : Alexa Meade and other amazing creepy paintings as Writing : X?

  4. Blake Butler

      that Lin Yu Chun dude is real as fukk. improving the original wins.

  5. voorface

      What about someone like Glenn Brown? In writing maybe Excercises in Style?

  6. Matthew Salesses

      These paintings are creepy, Alissa. They lie in the uncanny valley, no?

  7. Alissa Nutting

      I suppose I’m getting at what happens when an imitation, if that’s not too reductive of a word when applied to art (which i’m sure it is but I get to use a less-than-par word b/c it’s Friday; this less-than-par word is the Casual Friday equivalent of me getting to wear jeans to the office) is so good that the line of authenticity gets fractured. And I’m a pretty big fan of fracturing.

      The fabulous Glenn Brown! I wish the titles of his paintings were instead the titles of books I’ve written, like “On Hearing the Death of My Mother,” “Deep Throat,” and “Tart Wit, Wise Humor.” He actually does have one called “The Andromeda Strain.” Nice intersection there.

      Good point, Matthew…maybe one possible X can just be Uncanny Valley. It’s a pretty great net. And perhaps a better analogy is Lin Yu Chun : Alexa Meade and other amazing creepy paintings as Writing : X?

  8. Blake Butler

      that Lin Yu Chun dude is real as fukk. improving the original wins.

  9. Kristen Iskandrian

      all i can say to this is: yes.

  10. Kristen Iskandrian

      all i can say to this is: yes.