Fairweather Magazine

PREMIERE 2013

Fairweather is all about living life to the fullest, embracing and following dreams. Fairweather’s mission is to take you to the place of those dreams with unique stories on art, film, fashion, design, travel, business, philanthropy and politics.

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fostering relationships with Chinese artists. Lana was born in China but during the years leading up to the communist revolution, her parents decided to relocate to Brazil. Lana did not only work closely with Andy at "The Factory," but they spent a great deal of time together in the Hamptons. They grew very close in the summer of 1972 when Andy rented a house in East Hampton for Lana and others to work on the flm Heat. Andy would commute from the city for the weekends and they would go to the beach. "It was during this period that we had a connection," notes Lana. In order to protect his trademark pale complexion, Lana remembers a time when Andy borrowed her oversized straw hat to sunbathe in. She continued to flm Andy in New York and Dusseldorf and when they went to the showing of their flm Heat at the Cannes Film Festival. Lana was not the only one behind the camera that summer of 1972. Andy found himself equally fascinated by her and took to his camera to capture her as well. In one black and white video, Andy shot the exotic-looking Lana cooking a Chinese dish in his East Hampton kitchen. In this footage the two of them gossip about other artists, talk about tomatoes, the Shelter Island ferries, and which supermarkets they frequent. Andy brings up the subject of Hollywood and making movies. "Sometimes, we would cook lunch, and Andy would ask, 'What can I do?' And then they would say, 'Why don't you sweep the kitchen foor?'" Lana remembers. "He would answer, 'Oh, all right.'" Lana wanted her flm to be like a collage to refect the chaotic nature of Andy's life in the seventies. Lana was especially drawn to the less than glamorous side of Andy. "He was very gossipy….and he was really hung up on celebrities," Lana admits. "He was always on the phone, [wanting] to know who's sleeping with who and how much money you have. Andy liked the flm very much," says Lana. "Forty years before our time, he [felt like he] was doing a reality show." "The flm gives a whole picture of what was going on at that time," says Lana. In addition to sharing their intimate moments in the hour-long flm, her footage also captures some of the most infamous declarations by Andy, such as: "I don't make revolutionary art. I make old art," and his defnition when prompted of art: "Art is short for artist; words are just made shorter." Lines of his Above: Stills from Lana's documentary, Chinese Hand Laundry and Field of Waste, shown at Guild Hall in East Hampton on August 21 at 8 p.m. on shopping that are often quoted make an appearance in the flm as well: "I thought department stores were the new museums; museums should become department stores and they could sell the paintings of the wall," and "the new art now is fashion shows." After completing her documentary on Andy, Lana has remained a staple in the art world. She also continued to make flms on the great modern and pop artists, such as Claes Oldenburg and Larry Rivers. However, in recent years, Lana has been returning to her roots by Transplanted as a young girl, Lana certainly didn't go unnoticed as a Chinese girl in her school so the concept of "melting pots" has always fascinated her. Not only is she drawn to Chinese art, but also the process of the artists' assimilation into Western culture. During her involvement in New York City's New Museum in the 1990s she followed two avant-garde Chinese artists while they were working on an installation of an exhibition. They were the frst Chinese avant-garde artists who preceded the outpour of the Chinese contemporary art scene to the west by 20 years. "It was wonderful to go around New York with them," recalls Lana. She captured this fascinating "culture shock" experience with these artists and completed a documentary on their work. The flm, titled Chinese Hand Laundry and Field of Waste, will be shown at Guild Hall a week after the flm Andy Warhol this August. Despite completing her flm on Andy decades ago, Lana feels it is time to introduce the flm to a new audience. "Documentary flms are in some ways legacies left by the artists. It is important that future generations see these artists at work. I did this flm on Andy 40 years ago. The things he said at the time sounded so outrageous, and yet so much came true today. He was a genius at predicting what [was going to happen]," Lana adds. She ofered one particularly compelling example of how Warhol was incredibly paranoid and fearful about hospitals and doctors. "Andy would say to me if you don't have health, you have nothing." Lana sees this fear as a premonition as he died during recovery from surgery in 1987. "You can't disregard Andy's work…40 years is a long time, look where his work is today." Lana admits that she lacked Warhol's clairvoyant skills: "When I came to New York, who knew I would become a documentary flmmaker and meet all of these interesting people?" But she was in the right place at the right time, with the right crowd…and most importantly, she was the right person. FAIRWEATHER | SUMMER 2013 | 25

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