Just a few weeks ago, we had the chance to admire Selim Varol’s collection at the “Wonderwalls—Street Art and Designer Toys” exhibition at the NRW Forum in Düsseldorf.
In the current exhibition in the museum’s left wing, we can currently see what appear to be paparazzi or documentary photographs of famous personalities such as Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, Marilyn Monroe, the Royal Family, Justin Bieber, and Angela Merkel.
All images were staged by Alison Jackson with the help of actors and lookalikes.
Jackson’s images reflect longings, play with perception, and challenge photography’s claim to truth.
The NRW Forum Düsseldorf is dedicating the British photographer’s first institutional solo exhibition in Germany to her, running through May 14, 2023, featuring approximately 80 photographs and videos from her most important bodies of work.
Our society is obsessed with the lives of celebrities: Paparazzi hound stars, and tabloid media sensationalize their stories on a daily basis. Privacy becomes public, and the lives of others turn into consumable products.
The question remains: what is real and what is staged—and whether this distinction is still of any interest at all.
British photographer Jackson offered a drastic answer in 2020: “Truth is dead. Nothing we’re shown is trustworthy; everything can be fake, and nothing is authentic. What does this knowledge do to us?”
For her work, Jackson—born in 1960—employs actors or hires lookalikes to produce convincingly realistic paparazzi or documentary-style images of the intimate, often suggestive, yet imaginary private lives of famous public figures.
Donald Trump, the British royal family, Marilyn Monroe, Kim and Kanye West, Elton John, Justin Bieber, Jack Nicholson, Rihanna, Boris Johnson, David and Victoria Beckham, and Angela Merkel are just a few of the figures who appear repeatedly in her works. New works have also been created for the exhibition at the NRW-Forum.
In her images, Jackson deceives, fabricates, and provokes, thereby demonstrating that one cannot rely on one’s own perception in photography. Or does Jackson, with her fictional stories, perhaps even illustrate a far more drastic truth?
The images consistently reflect the viewers’ longings and illusions and explore the delicate balance between privacy and public life. Jackson’s photographs are parodies—sometimes hyperreal and obscene, sometimes unsettling—but they are always entertaining and humorous.
Alison Jackson was born in 1960 in Southsea, England, and studied sculpture and photography at the Royal College of Art in London and at Chelsea College of Art and Design. With her series “Doubletake” (2001–2003), she won a BAFTA (British Academy Film Awards) and, among other honors, received the International Center of Photography Infinity Award in 2004.
Her portraits, sculptures, films, and videos have been exhibited worldwide, including at the Tate Modern in London (2010), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2011), and the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2014).
The exhibition was curated by Anke Degenhard, who most recently organized the Martin Schoeller exhibition at the NRW Forum in 2020.
Photos via NRW-Forum
All photos (c) Alison Jackson
Exhibition views (c) Katja Illner
