American Darkness And Heartbreak Is On Graphic Display In Julia Fox’s ‘PTSD’ Show
Julia Fox left her native New York City with the intention of getting away from it all in — of all places — Louisiana, America, toting a Contax T2 gifted to by her best friend Richie Shazam for Christmas. Instead, she found herself amidst a pretty dark situation, forcing her to question herself, over and over again.
The good news is, she took some photographs along the way. And fittingly, Richie helped her curate “PTSD,” an art exhibition reconstructing all the darkness Julia found in herself, and a few others, including a gay prostitute, down South. There’s a bedroom constructed in the center of the show, facing a television screen featuring an iPhone video of the artist masturbating on loop. Bruises, needles, and Catholic iconography abound.
Though the exhibition is only up for the rest of the weekend at LA’s The Void, Julia, maybe unsurprisingly, is ready for it to end.
“I can’t look at those photos anymore tbh,” she texted me, after Richie walked me through the show. He’s ready for it to end as well.
“The world feels so fucked up right now,” he told me, motioning to an addition the duo made after the Orlando shooting, a haphazard pasting of targets and images of guns plastering the wall opposite Julia’s bedroom. It’s probably the most effective interpretation I’ve seen of the taste Orlando has left in all of our mouths so far. All of a sudden, you’re claustrophobic, realizing that any moment, it might be you experiencing the same pain as the artist, and the curator.
And in case you were wondering:
“I left the situation pretty broken hearted,” Julia said of how it all ended down South. If you leave “PTSD” feeling the same way, be glad art has the capacity to do that for you. And if it still hurts, remember, this is still America, and you can still go shopping. “PTSD” merch sells for $60 a sweatshirt.
The following are stills from the book Julia made. If you don’t know her already, find out via Instagram immediately.
