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Phillips and Lohan at Art Basel
June 8, 2012

Next week at Art Basel, Richard Phillips will premiere his second short film featuring Lindsay Lohan. The scandal-plagued starlet also appeared in the Phillips short film entitled “Lindsay Lohan,” which premiered during the 2011 Venice Biennale.

“I call it almost, like, a day-noir,” Phillips says of the surfing-themed short, titled “First Point”. Lindsay and her body double, the professional surfer Kassia Meador, capture a dark aesthetic, even as they glisten in the California sun. The two sway in a somber slow-motion choreography that seems to celebrate Lindsay’s Marilyn-like status as pop culture icon even as it captures the her hollow Hollywood dream. The film’s elegantly eerie music was scored by Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, and it rises and falls with the waves that carry the young star to shore.

“First Point,” however, is about more than just fame— it uses Lohan’s celebrity status to consider what constitutes art. “Because of the actor and the popular culture dimensions of the project, it will give people — especially people in the art world — a real sense of instability with regard to my intentions,” explains Phillips. “Is it a film? Is it an art video? It refuses to announce itself as either.”

Film Still by Richard Phillips’s “First Point” via Gagosian Gallery

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