![]() ![]() Riding on the tails of renewed current debate, this study turns its attention to the management of an archival source, opening the way not only to a reconsideration of the artist’s oeuvre but also to a better consideration of its place in the history of photography. This article is dedicated to the archive of the American artist Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), stored since 2011 at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. Although such commodification is offered up as aspirational, it is potentially highly problematic in the ways that it attempts to further render Smith’s blackness ‘safe’ for audiences." Mythic phallic power and desire is displaced onto clothes and accessories that function to construct Smith’s on-screen personas as a new male hero with cross-over appeal in order to maximise his celebrity commodity status. In starting to readdress this absence, I will argue that whilst Smith’s body initially appears to be fetishised, his representation is characterised by performance and fragmentation which renders the body and blackness a construction, rather than a naturalised / essentialist object of desire. Despite Smith's popularity with audiences, together with the on-screen product placement and off-screen promotion of fashion brands such as Ray-Ban, Puma, Belstaff and Converse, the intersection of Smith, black masculinity and fashion does not appear to have been the subject of extended academic attention. Building on existing critical work on costume, identity and cinema (Bruzzi, Church Gibson, Gilligan), the article forms part of my wider research project, which includes a forthcoming monograph, that responds to calls for further interdisciplinary work exploring the ‘new nexus’ of film, fashion and consumption that has emerged as cinema ever increasingly ‘bleeds across’ different media (Church Gibson 2008, 2010). Through comparative analysis with examples drawn from photography, I argue that Smith’s representation enables the black body to be rendered as fashionable and aspirational, rather than simply objectified via sexualised visual discourses. Jon watches Pulp Fiction for the first time and is like, “What the fuck is this?” And he stays in the theatre as the credit crawl is going on and sees Stephen’s name."The article examines the ways in which the representation of Will Smith in I am Legend and I, Robot constructs post-colonial performative visual narratives that both follow and disrupt existing discourses of sexualised black masculinity within visual culture. The director also told a story about comedian Jon Lovitz, who, when he saw Pulp Fiction, was surprised to see he had a personal friend in the cast: “I heard a funny thing from Jon Lovitz, who knew Stephen Hibbert, the guy who played the Gimp, from The Groundlings. Sounds right up the Tarantino-film-universe’s alley. In terms of backstory, he was like a hitchhiker or somebody that they picked up seven years ago, and they trained him so he’s the perfect victim.” Butch knocked him out and then when he passed out he hung himself. Plus, Tarantino intended for the poor guy to die by the end of the film: “It doesn’t quite play this way in the movie, but in my mind when I wrote it, the Gimp’s dead. ![]() Apparently, The Gimp is a hitchiker who fell victim to Maynard and his brother. ![]() Now, thanks to a new interview Tarantino did with Empire, we finally have a little more info about the mysterious, giggling henchman. Treat yourself to 85+ years of history-making journalism. Maynard has The Gimp make sure Butch doesn’t escape-he does, of course-leaving the leather-dressed dude knocked out. If you’ll remember, we meet Stephen Hibbert’s BDSM-outfitted servant when Maynard chains up Butch in a pawnshop basement. Here’s another one for you: Our ever-so-brief time with The Gimp, from Pulp Fiction. ![]() Don't Tell Brad Pitt to Take His Shirt Off. ![]()
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