BLACKBOOK: HOLY WAR
SEPTEMBER 16, 2008
"Holy War" @ Tony Shafrazi Gallery
by Rohin Guha
BlackBook
September 16, 2008


A self-professed surrealist, David LaChapelle has a talent for skewing close to reality when need be – as in, whenever Amy Winehouse calls on him to direct a music video – and making that reality look eye-popping, campy, and cogent to boot. But he shines the most not through his MTV cache, but through his own visual artwork. It's within galleries where he's truly entitled to toy with and reshape reality.

Consider "Holy War." Currently on display through October 24 at New York Tony Shafrazi's Gallery, this exhibition of print and collage is a tour through the American occupation in Iraq. LaChapelle's pieces bear a distinctly American sensibility in their excess and gluttony – both in style and size. From Islam to oil money, he wrings visual stories out of every facet of life affected by the war. Despite its tendency for more over less, the show's absurdist if vaguely Dali-esque bent delivers a more concise analysis of the mess abroad than the white noise on any cable news network.