Jacqueline Fraser: The Making of the Ciao Manhattan Tapes, 2013

Published 2013 by Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery at Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington 
95 pages 
210mm x 148mm, paperback, with colour illustrations 
Edited by Christina Barton 
Design by The International Office 
Printed by Milne Print Ltd 
ISBN 978-1-877309-28-1

Jacqueline Fraser’s THE MAKING OF THE CIAO MANHATTAN TAPES 2013 was the latest manifestation of a 3-D practice which combines collages—copied and torn from magazines and embellished with fabric and other materials—with projected images, sound, sculptural elements, designer furniture and lighting, to produce an immersive environment. Hypersensitive to the lure of contemporary consumer culture, Fraser identified points of conjunction between the visual repertoires of high art, design, and fashion and mainstream pop culture. She referenced the cult film Ciao! Manhattan (1972, directed by John Palmer and David Weisman) which loosely fictionalises the tumultuous life of Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol’s first superstar, whose upper-class dysfunction and legendary beauty turned her into the 60s’ art world’s first celebrity and one of its more incandescent casualties.