An integrated arts response to Jill's transcripts
So Not Hollywood: A series by Patricia Maarhuis
More information about the series
Often, when doing interpretive artwork, I take basic themes, forms, and medium from initial thoughts that float up while I’m reading through the narrative for the first time. For this series, the phrase that almost immediately came to me was: That’s just so Hollywood…. On the surface Jill’s narrative has some of the same elements used by the movie and media industry to ‘sex up’ a story and sell theater tickets - guns, violence, drugs, money, and intrigue. But, when it comes to women, their families, and meth addiction, the representations sold by the movie industry in film are never the whole story and living meth addiction is not that glamorous. This poetry and poster series chronicles the deeper issues in Jill’s experience of addiction and her relationships, loss, leaving, and pain.
The poetry is taken directly from the interview narratives, edited into poetic form, and are considered participant-voiced works (Prendergast, 2009). Each
poem is paired with an interpretive poster. A few of the posters are plays – visual and narrative - on actual films such as Home Alone (1990), Romancing the
Stone (1984), and Scar Face (1982) that were popular during the 1980s & 1990s. Coincidentally, during that same time, use of stimulants -cocaine, crack, crystal, amphetamine, and methamphetamine - peaked in the U.S. (SAMSHA, 1999) as did the rise and dominance of Mexican drug cartel trafficking (Beittel,
2013). The posters are not meant to be sarcastic or a parody. Rather, the works are a deliberate overstatement - juxtaposed and exaggerated representations - of how Jill’s full experience is just so not Hollywood, when explored in depth and with compassion.
Often, when doing interpretive artwork, I take basic themes, forms, and medium from initial thoughts that float up while I’m reading through the narrative for the first time. For this series, the phrase that almost immediately came to me was: That’s just so Hollywood…. On the surface Jill’s narrative has some of the same elements used by the movie and media industry to ‘sex up’ a story and sell theater tickets - guns, violence, drugs, money, and intrigue. But, when it comes to women, their families, and meth addiction, the representations sold by the movie industry in film are never the whole story and living meth addiction is not that glamorous. This poetry and poster series chronicles the deeper issues in Jill’s experience of addiction and her relationships, loss, leaving, and pain.
The poetry is taken directly from the interview narratives, edited into poetic form, and are considered participant-voiced works (Prendergast, 2009). Each
poem is paired with an interpretive poster. A few of the posters are plays – visual and narrative - on actual films such as Home Alone (1990), Romancing the
Stone (1984), and Scar Face (1982) that were popular during the 1980s & 1990s. Coincidentally, during that same time, use of stimulants -cocaine, crack, crystal, amphetamine, and methamphetamine - peaked in the U.S. (SAMSHA, 1999) as did the rise and dominance of Mexican drug cartel trafficking (Beittel,
2013). The posters are not meant to be sarcastic or a parody. Rather, the works are a deliberate overstatement - juxtaposed and exaggerated representations - of how Jill’s full experience is just so not Hollywood, when explored in depth and with compassion.