A Japanese Dream (video stills)

In 1997 The Waiting Room presented Double Life, an group exhibition curated by Peter Lewis and Esther Windsor. Described by the curators as a 'hysterical public fantasy', the group show included two related works by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard.

"As artists they've consistently referenced the soundtrack to their lives- and ours. Taking inspiration from pop music acknowledges something that everyone uses as a tool of self-expression and communication."

i-D Magazine

Installation view of Double Life including A Japanese Dream

The first, a video work entitled A Japanese Dream is a single camera fixed shot of the frantic seven minute make-over by Jane of Iain into Robert Smith from the The Cure.

The second work is a framed text and photographic work titled Why Can't I Be You?. This work exists in an edition of three and had originally been exhibited in Yerself is Steam, it was subsequently included in Glitter at the Bluecoat Arts Centre in Liverpool, an exhibition on the theme of pop icons.

Both works echo Iain's youth as a fan of The Cure and pull into sharp focus the wider implications of what it means to idolise and to admire to the point of pointless imitation. Again, the dividing line between artifice and authenticity is blurred.

Why Can't I Be You?

Double Life presented the work of:

Joe Allen, Carlos Amorales, Bank, Peter Fillingham, Flag Organisation, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, Anthony Heywood, Runa Islam, John Isacs, Simon Martin, Victor Mount, Derek Ogbourne, Owen Oppenheimer, Guillaume Paris, Donald Parsnips, Giorgio Sadotti, Guy Richards Smit, Bob & Roberta Smith, Eva Rothschild, Elizabeth Wright, Mark Wright and Jessica Voorsanger