Le mois dernier, nous vous parlions de l’incroyable clip publicitaire pour la marque Dermablend mettant en scène Rick Genest, plus célèbre sous le charmant sobriquet de « Zombie Boy ». Genest est un jeune canadien, connu depuis des années du milieu du tatouage et récupéré depuis peu par le milieu de la mode et la culture mainstream (notre homme étant apparu cette année dans le clip de « Born This Way » de Lady Gaga). En l’espace de quelques années, Genest est devenu une figure incontournable de l’underground et c’est à ce titre que nous le retrouvons aujourd’hui exposé aux murs du Cabinet des Curieux, galerie d’art et d’antiquités parisienne soutenant activement la scène artistique alternative depuis 2007.
Group Show - 7th December 2011 to 28th January 2012
This exhibition's unifying theme is transgressive and alternative beauty, illustrated through portraits of artists, musicians, fashion designers, writers, actors.... Who have gone beyond the realms of academic style to embrace uniqueness.
Beautiful People, the title of the show, a tribute to the song by Marilyn Manson, rock icon, initially brings mainstream stars to mind. Marylin Manson, amalgam of Marilyn Monroe, eternal symbol of beauty, and Charles Manson, ever so notorious criminal. A fascinating symphony of celebrity, attraction, beauty, repulsion -
These frequently intimate works of art, including quite a few previously unreleased, bring us closer to the artists who, from the 80s to today, have inspired and influences the metamorphosis of our aesthetic and social values, explored the paradoxical concepts of ambiguous beauty, strangeness, transgression, uniqueness - that lead to the absolutely sublime. These portraits reveal also their authors, who also sought to reveal the foundations of this strange beauty.
Lady Gaga opened the Grammy Nominations Concert Live tonight with an expected, yet highly anticipated, performance of her latest single "Marry the Night." Per usual, the pop superstar combined theatrics with on-spot vocalizations and started the special off on the "right" foot.
The Mother Monster's Rick Genest imitation make-up was on display, though Gaga wasn't the carbon copy of Rico the Zombie that she presented in the "Born This Way" video. The make-up is viewable in this Twitpic of the star from earlier in the day as well as in the YouTube video embedded below. Chances are a more detailed application of the look would not have cleaned off fast enough for Lady Gaga to hit the stage again to close the program with Sugarland. As it was, she sported full-on blacked out eyes for their duet of her hit single "You and I."
Bio
It’s easy to imagine Rick Genest, also known as Zombie Boy, looking spooky under the spotlight in a Montreal sideshow and in the occasional magazine spread. Through the saving grace of Facebook, he was found by Nicolas Formichetti, a behindthe-scenes visionary who works closely with Lady Gaga and has his stamp on many other big-name fashion projects. He had seen Rico (Zombie Boy’s more conventional name) on the internet, but assumed the extensively tattooed visage and body were the result of hour-long sessions of body painting, having styled many a grueling photo shoot himself. He underestimated Rico’s zealous passion. Rico had dedicated his body to his art, which is an ode to a decomposing corpse aswell as a tribute to horror movies, not surprisingly, his favoritegenre. Having spent thousands of dollars and over three years on this transformation, Rico’s investment has finally paid off. Formichetti paid his overdue fines for sleeping on the street so that he could get a passport to walk in the Thierry Mugler Paris show, for which he was also the muse.
