Los Angeles is no stranger to impermanence. Its movie stars spark, ascend and fade; their blockbusters open and close. The wildfires that have devastated parts of the city over the past week are a heartbreaking reminder of the tenuous nature of its existence.
Yet in a city forever in flux, Angelyne is a constant. Since 1984, her buxom, her impossibly pink and platinum-blonde figure, has graced billboards across the city – a staple of its landscape. Prefiguring by decades the It Girls of the aughts, she embodies a post-modern, peroxide distillation of celebrity. A sighting of her cruising around in her signature pink Corvette marks a rite of passage for transplants to the City of Angels.
Multifaceted and mononymic, she is an artist, musician, poet and actress (and honorary Mayor of West Hollywood). And in her most recent visual art, Angelyne’s medium echoes the ephemeral nature of her hometown: food.
Currently on display at Melrose Botanical Garden, ICANDY immortalises the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Audrey Hepburn, Cher and E.T. in the smears, crumbs and drizzles left behind after Angelyne’s meals at various LA restaurants. Curated by Lizzie Klein and Sophie Appel, each work is kissed in gold glitter with the artist’s signature.
Like a fortune teller reading tea leaves, the images come to Angelyne in a vision: “When I finish eating, things just appear on my plate, and then I work with it,” she says, her voice purring. “For example, Michael Jackson. I went to The Coffee Bean [& Tea Leaf] and I asked for coffee grinds. For some reason I brought a giant peach [with me, too]. If you look at Michael Jackson, you can see the little tiny nose is the stem. It’s incredible because it’s the spirit of the person that comes to the plate.”
The inspiration is a constant, yielding a catalogue of hundreds of “food art” portraits from over the years. Take, for example, The Wolfman, one of her personal favourites: “The cut on his cheek—it was a cheese enchilada and when I cut it, the sauce came through. I believe it was at El Torito or Acapulco. I really like Mexican food.”
Some faces are more welcome than others, of course. “I’m not seeking to do a food painting or art painting of anyone,” she says. “Like Cher – you would think I’m a fan of her, wouldn’t you? I think she’s an icon but I’m not a fan of her music, her voice, her looks, all of it. She’s just too square for me!” As the artist tells it, there’s a spontaneity, a channeling of energy that flirts even with the divine. “I think there are angels that come through the food,” she says. “Two nights ago, I had to sleep at my studio because of the fires. At 3:00 in the morning, I woke up and started making a picture and the next day, the winds died down.”
While some may chase fame through carefully engineered images, Angelyne finds lasting beauty in fleeting coffee grounds, cabbage, and enchilada sauce. The results are appropriately imperfect, always intriguing portraits of Hollywood legends – made by one of their own.
‘ICANDY’ is on view at Melrose Botanical Garden on Fridays and Saturdays from 12-4pm, and by appointment, through 4 February.
Credits
Words: Kristin Anderson
Photography: Angelyne
