GLAMOURFACTORY

CONTEMPORARY VINTAGE

LATESHIFTTOUR

Late Shift Tours offer an alternative way of exploring the National Portrait Gallery by presenting personal responses and perspectives on the Collection.

This third Late Shift Tour has been created in response to the exhibition Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits, with photographs from the John Kobal Foundation and the Glamour Factory, a late night event at the Gallery on 7 October 2011 created in partnership with Contemporary Vintage. The hosts of the Glamour Factory offer their reflections on myth, glamour, style, scandal and immortality, responding to portraits in the Collection. Take this tour and let them guide you through the galleries offering ideas and insights. Continue the conversation on Twitter.

LATESHIFTTOUR

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First Floor Landing

Lifts to Floors 0 1 2 3

Lift to Floors–2 –1 0 1 2

Shop

Ondaatje Wing

Main Hall

IT GalleryPortrait Explorer

Exhibition Shop

Lift to Floors –2 –1 0 1 2

Escalator to Floor 2

Lifts to Floors 0 1 2 3

Main EntranceSt Martin’s Place

Shop EntranceSt Martin’s Place

Lift to Floor –3 (Bookshop/Café)

Lift to IT Gallery

Orange Street Entrance

1st Floor

Ground Floor

Sitters

Dame Elizabeth Taylor – Room 32

Emmeline Pankhurst – Room 30

Edward Alexander ‘Aleister’ Crowley – Room 31

Anna Zinkeisen – Room 31

Akram Khan – Room 35

Sir Roy Strong – Room 38a

Marc Quinn – Room 38

All images can also be found onthe Portrait Explorer, IT Gallery 21

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37a

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38a

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41a

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Emmeline Pankhurstby Georgina Agnes Brackenbury, 1927Floor 1, Room 30

Most people agree that change is essential for us to grow, yet are reluctant to allow it. This applies to society as much as to individuals, and the more established, the deeper this problem goes. Change imposed from outside risks provoking strong opposition, no matter how necessary. Ultimately, true change only happens from within, but without external accelerators the pace of change is inexorably slow. The image of the agitator is ever a blurred one.

Oliver Vicars-Harris, Contemporary Vintage#NPGTOUR23

‘Manufactured’ implies the repeated, multiplied quantities of identical products made for popular consumption. It does not suggest something that has been touched by the skill, technique and imperfection of the creator’s hand, this is the trigger for emotional engagement. Beauty can lie in imperfection and self expression. Although make-up can be used like paint to cover imperfections it can also be used to ultimately demonstrate self expression and this cannot be manufactured.

Joe Corre, Illamasqua#NPGTOUR12

Dame Elizabeth Taylorby Andy Warhol, 1967Floor 1, Room 32

SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL:IS DISRUPTION NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE CHANGE?

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING:CAN BEAUTY BE MANUFACTURED?

Crowley once walked through the Café Royal wearing a wizard’s cloak emblazoned with magical symbols. None of the overly-polite and/or terrified diners dared meet his glare; he declared it proof he could make himself invisible. Jack Parsons, the father of jet propulsion, loved Crowley and explosions. With L. Ron Hubbard, he conjured the goddess Babalon - a week later flame-haired beauty Marjorie Cameron knocked on his door. Hubbard absconded with Parsons’s wife and plenty of his money.

David Piper, Commander of Special Operations, Hendrick’s Gin#NPGTOUR3

Edward Alexander ‘Aleister’ Crowleyby Leon Engers Kennedy, 1917 – 18Floor 1, Room 31

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MYTH MACHINE:HOW FAR CAN YOU PLAY WITH PERCEPTION?

The way we think about anything changes when we look at it up close – especially ourselves. Through a lens – be it a camera or a microscope – new facets may be revealed. Examining glamour through both science and art provides insights into any subject that goes behind the glossy façade, just as the process of self-reflection that went into Anna Zinkeisen’s self-portrait captures the essence of her character: image is everything.

Zoe Cormier, Guerilla Science#NPGTOUR4

Anna ZinkeisenBy Anne Zinkeisen, 1944Floor 1, Room 31

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READY FOR YOUR CLOSE-UP: WHAT CHANGES WHEN YOU GET UP CLOSE?

‘Effortless style’ is a journalistic cliché; the hard work and endless revisions needed before journalists can submit their own copy is proof enough. To perfect ‘style’, training, practise and self-scrutiny are needed. However, talent is possibly innate - flair and skill are arguably inborn. But without constant self-surveillance and the idea that skills can always be further honed, ‘style’ will not find its proper expression within artistic practice - even the ‘style’ inherent in self presentation.

Pamela Church-Gibson, Reader in Cultural and Historical Studies, London College of Fashion#NPGTOUR5

Akram Khanby Darvish Fakhr, 2008Floor 0, Room 35

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PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT: DOES STYLE COME NATURALLY OR DO YOU HAVE TO WORK AT IT?

Power dressing isn’t just about shoulder pads. From the ruffs the Elizabethans wore to frame the face to the strict codes of City bankers, clothing has always been used to project an image of who we aspire to be. The semiotics of dress inform and shape how we present ourselves and our sartorial choices affect how we’re perceived in the world. Those who succeed are the ones who learn to manipulate this to their advantage.

Amber and Nisha, The Broken Hearts#NPGTOUR6

Sir Roy Strong: An Elizabethan Reverieby John Swannell, 2010Floor 0, Room 38a

POWER DRESSING:DOES DRESS CREATE SUCCESS?

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Marc Quinn ‘Self’by Marc Quinn, 2006Floor 0, Room 38

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IMMORTAL DREAMS:HOW CAN WE LIVE FOREVER?

It is good to try to live without illusions. Yet to accept without a struggle the inevitability of ageing and death: doesn’t that show a lack of love for life? But what about a ’head job’ or ’neurological suspension‘? Your head cryonically frozen at death so that, perhaps, in the future your brain may be revived in a new body. Forlorn hope, perhaps, but hope nonetheless. By contrast, retarding ageing now appears a realistic prospect.

David Gems, Institute of Healthy Ageing, UCL#NPGTOUR7

All images © National Portrait Gallery except Dame Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol, 1967 © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Dacs, London 2011. © Marc Quinn. Photography by Todd-White Art Photography, courtesy White Cube, London.

Contemporary Vintage is a creative agency connecting audiences to culture in new and unexpected ways. We believe that there is a gap between the way culture is traditionally communicated and people’s everyday lives. We fill that gap by connecting people to culture in ways that are relevant to them. Our projects fuse cultural heritage with underground edge, to spark new perspectives and create unexpected relationships. Most importantly, we put people at the centre of the action, encouraging them to take the experience and make it their own.

www.contemporary-vintage.com

National Portrait GallerySt Martin’s PlaceLondon WC2H 0HE

Admission Free

Open 10.00 – 18.00Late Shift every Thursday and Friday 18.00 – 21.00www.npg.org.uk/lateshift

© National Portrait Gallery, October 2011

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