Michèle Matyn


Go to hell with me or Die

“Go to hell with me or Die”, were the words that Daniel wrote on a tourposter after i had tuned his face to look like legendary rockband Kiss and drew his famous frog on his belly.
This was before the show at the 013 venue in Tilburg on april 13th 2007.

As a part of my ‘idolatry” project, I’m interested in people who follow the talent of their idol as guidance in their own life.
The focus of idolatry can become your wife, dog, Elvis Presley or Paul Severs.
In 2005 I went to Waller, Texas as a fan of Daniel Johnston.
I hung out with him for a day and took pictures in his atelier / idol-museum.
Here he had made altars for The Beatles, The Butthole Surfers, and his future wife to be; Marilyn Monroe ..
I portrayed him by his surroundings, and took a picture of his face reflected in a dark mirror. That way you can see the manic side that haunts him.
These pictures were to be seen in the exhibition “Love is the answer, and you know that for sure” in the Brakke Grond in Amsterdam in 2006.

I thought it would be only fair to reprint the portraits I took of Daniel, so he could reply to them.
I turned my boyfriend’s van into ‘a mobile drawing studio’, and followed Daniel on his latest mini tour through Holland and Belgium.
After or before the show, when Daniel felt like it, he could draw on the pictures,
I bought him Posca markers, but Daniel turned them into Magic Markers.


Michèle Matyn 2007.
Thanks to Dick Johnston and love to Daniel.





 

TEXTS BY SARA WEYNS


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Love is the Answer