Do you remember last year when two enterprising Brooklynites opened a museum/shrine to figure skaters Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding in their apartment? Well, Matt Harkins and Viviana Olen are back with an idea for another hilarious pop culture exhibition, this time devoted to Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
While their Kerrigan/Harding “permanent collection” will stay put, the pair, both of whom are also comedians, state on their Kickstarter page: “It’s important for museums to feature new artists and work that discusses important cultural events. This is how Museum’s [sic] ‘keep it fresh.’ We are a museum.”
As they’ve run out of room in their apartment, Harkins and Olen plan to rent a storefront space and erect a two-week pop-up exhibition that will feature the work of Chicago-based painter Laura Collins, whose series “The Olsen Twins Hiding From The Paparazzi” is, well, paintings of the Olsens hiding from photogs behind various Olsen trappings like Berkin bags, Starbucks cups, and comically oversize pairs of designer sunglasses.
Laura Collins, An Olsen Twin Hiding Behind Her Right Arm (2015)
“Laura’s paintings tell the story of how, using a patented system of approximately 700 lbs of beautiful clothes, strategically high collars, face sized bags, and tiny house-sized sunglasses, the Olsens are able to hide themselves from unwanted photographers,” the Kickstarter statement reads. “In fact, you can never be sure a photo of an Olsen is actually an Olsen. It could just be a showroom rack of unattainable clothes rolling down the sidewalk.”
Just as they were inspired to create the Kerrigan/Harding museum after watching the ESPN documentary The Price of Gold, they were drawn to the tabloid sensation sisters after reading about Mary-Kate’s lavish recent wedding to French banker Olivier Sarkozy.
“Five words: ‘bowls and bowls of cigarettes.’ A lot of people have memories of the Olsen twins from their movies or from Full House, but for us, we could not get over the glamour of Mary-Kate’s wedding,” they said in an e-mail to artnet News. “You never read stories like that anymore. Everyone documents everything now, but at the wedding, all of the guests had to turn in their phones. As far as we know, there are no photos of the event at all. It is, essentially an urban legend at this point.”
Laura Collins, An Olsen Twins Hiding Behind A Fendi Tote (2015).
Harkins and Olen are seeking $9,500 (they have already raised $1,286 as of press time) to rent the space, ship Collins’s paintings from Chicago, fly her in, and throw a “killer party.” The Olsens, of course, will be invited, but the pair recognizes that it “feels off-brand for them to come.”
If they are able to raise $15,000, they will keep the show open for a month, and if they can obtain $25,000, they’ll keep the storefront open for a year with an array of rotating (and, we imagine, similarly hilarious) exhibitions.
“We’d love to [produce more exhibitions], this is sort of the test run to gauge interest,” they told artnet News. “We would love to continue to celebrate and highlight the amazing ‘fan’ art that is just so exciting out there.”
Laura Collins, An Olsen Twin Hiding Behind A Fendi (2015).
Laura Collins, An Olsen Twin Hiding Behind Her Hands (2015)