Aspen Art Museum

Published by Aspen Art Museum. Foreword by Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson. Text by Chrissie Iles, Mark Rappolt. Interview with Slater Bradley, Ed Lachman.

Look Up and Stay in Touch presents the final works in artist Slater Bradley’s decade-long doppelgänger project. Bradley (born 1975) has explored the way cultural icons are so imbued with myth that they become a mirror image (doppelgänger) of the self. Earlier works in the series include faked tribute videos in which Bradley’s doppelgänger, Ben Brock, performs as late musicians Ian Curtis, Michael Jackson, and Kurt Cobain. These final two works in the series focus on another of Bradley’s obsessions: the actor River Phoenix. The installations were produced in collaboration with Academy Award–nominated cinematographer and filmmaker Ed Lachman, director of photography for the film, Dark Blood, an unreleased 1993 film starring Phoenix that was in production at the time of the actor’s death. The video installations Shadow (2010) and Dead Ringer (2011) are based on the film, and the latter features an appearance by Bradley himself.