PENTHOUSE x PASSARELLA DEATH SQUAD : VIDEO DROME

PENTHOUSE x PASSARELLA DEATH SQUAD : VIDEO DROME Opening at Hunting and Collecting start 7pm - 16 exclusive artworks created from deep within the Penthouse archive photographed and doctored by designer Danny Passarella. The exhibition is travelling through concept stores world wide and has been on show before at END in Newcastle (UK) and STORM in Copenhagen (Denmark) earlier this year. “While considering this project I was especially compelled by the allure of the hidden, so I wanted people to look a bit deeper than they normally would at a Penthouse image,” says Danny, “Normally it’s the figure and the nudity that people notice. I wanted to draw viewers to the human being in the picture, and for the treatments to provoke a range of emotions beyond lust alone.” The designs, Danny hopes, provide a window onto the soul of the models themselves. The artworks are both furtive and seductive, evoking both the ghosted look of a pirated VHS or the lo-resolution, high-contrast nature of a youtube clip recorded from a cathode ray tube TV screen. They echo erotica viewed through supercharged synapses. Lavishly colourful, the viewer is drawn towards them – perhaps too close, like an obsessive James Woods slithering into his television in the climactic sequence of Cronenberg’s horror classic Videodrome. Danny both photographed and treated the initial images several times over to achieve the effect. A soundtrack has been created to accompany the exhibition by Danny passarella and the techno artist ‘Perc’. A limited edition of printed tee shirt will be available. -