Big Fan

Big Fan represents a collection of works on paper by Portland-based artist and musician Rose Lewis, encapsulating her paired obsessions with popular music and spirituality. The exhibition was curated and hosted by Josephine LaCosta. The opening reception featured a ritual led by local astrologer Chloe Margherita.

The drawings, prints, paintings, and collages in this exhibition literalize the idolatry inherent in the relationship between performer and fan by juxtaposing the iconography of popular music with the symbols of New Age spirituality and European occultism. We talk about worshiping our heroes and we describe famous musicians as idols. This reverent attitude has persisted even into the comparatively glamourless present, wherein the industry seems hell bent on convincing us that stars are just like us, despite abundant evidence to the contrary. We crave the tension that comes from a bit of distance, the star serving as an aspirational object to emulate or a prophet to be toppled in a healthy act of rebellion. “No Elvis, Beatles, or the Rolling Stones/In 1977,” sang the Clash, just as they began setting themselves up as a replacement myth, the Last Gang in Town. The pieces draw on the artist’s eclectic taste in music, taking inspiration from musicians ranging from the culturally colossal–Paul McCartney–to the cult classic–Lazy Magnet. The occult imagery is inspired by artists and mystics who had what might be described as a punk attitude towards established religion, jailbreaking previously hidden knowledge or setting up more inclusive alternatives to existing structures. The exhibition’s setting is in keeping with the punk spirit behind the work: it is, literally, a house show.