Actor / Director, 1954, 2013
Two painted aluminum lightboxes with transmounted chromogenic transparencies
Installed: 232.7 x 376 x 17.8 cm
Installed: 91 5/8 x 148 x 7 in
The five lightboxes by Graham included in this exhibition (from some 40 produced during his career) all share the shallow space of a painting: from a worker taking a break during a drywalling job, to another protagonist captured between takes on a Hollywood soundstage while filming a scene set in an 18th century French garden.
The French dandy in Actor/Director 1954 (2013) was inspired by the 1946 comedic version of an earlier silent film, Monsieur Beaucaire, featuring Bob Hope as Louis XIV’s heavily-coiffured barber.