Remembering Priscilla Prescott (Lenae Day)
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the death of illustrious film star and magnate Priscilla Prescott, Day Magazine will reissue its special tell-all edition originally published April 10th, 1989. Remembering Priscilla Prescott traces the life and loves, tragedies and triumphs, and intrigues and escapades of that Hollywood dynasty that you love to hate.
The Prescott women were pillars of the film world from their silent blockbusters to their straight-to-video flops of the late eighties. In celebration of Priscilla’s life in film, Phyllis McGillicuddy, president and resident historian of the Prescott Pictures Society, is hosting an event at Skylight Books on April 4th, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. Ms. McGillicuddy will fill us in on the most salacious tidbits and lasting legacies of Priscilla’s long career with a slideshow. Along with some seldom discussed stories, Ms. McGillicuddy will screen clips from two films that bookended Priscilla’s oeuvre, the classic of the silent era, Hot Tomato, from 1928 and her final film, The Virgin Terri released in 1989, the year of her death. Please join the Prescott Pictures Society for an evening of Hollywood scandal, laughs, and delights!
Phyllis McGillicuddy, film enthusiast and Prescott fanatic, is one of the many characters inhabited by interdisciplinary and performance artist Lenae Day as she fleshes out her extensive hagiography of the fictional Prescott family. Day recasts, photographs, and films herself as all the Prescott women, their numerous husbands, and competitors and co-stars. Through the development of comprehensive visual, written, and performative personae and story lines, Day archives and inhabits the professional and personal sagas of the Prescotts. This faux archive - which takes form in Day’s elaborate multiplayer performances and photographic staging - is reminiscent of the conceptual dramaturgy structuring the work of Cindy Sherman and Eleanor Antin.
The Prescott history is presented through the familiar, albeit peculiar, subjectivity of the film enthusiast. In the well-researched and reverent mode of the movie lover, Day crafts the Prescott Pictures annals to culminate in an immersive Hollywood rag magazine teeming with intricately crafted ephemera—such as headshots, candid shots, advertisements, movie posters, hand-sewn costumes, and props. Spanning the rise and fall of Classical Hollywood, Day’s Remembering Priscilla Prescott both reflects and intervenes in the manifold histories and myths related to studio and celebrity constructs.
Day will present the latest issue of her ongoing publication, Day Magazine. Her self-published magazine boasts period accurate graphic design and prose alongside lush photo spreads. In addition to the publication and her performance as Phyllis, Day will present new work in the form of fictional movie clips. After the performance and presentation of clips, Day will conduct a discussion of this body of work, which builds on and extends the world created in her recent solo show, Prescott Pictures, a fake Hollywood Museum dedicated to the family at Mark Moore Gallery in Culver City.
Lenae Day is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles, California. She recreates vintage images using herself as the model, making most of the costumes and props and pairs the images with short stories. She has two publications: Modern Candor and DAY Magazine, this will be her third publication made in this manner. Day has had solo exhibitions in Seattle and Los Angeles. She was recently named “One of Eight L.A. Artists You Should Know” by Fabrik Magazine, and her show Prescott Pictures received favorable reviews from L.A.Weekly, Artscene Cal, and Hyperallergic. She is the most recent recipient of the 5790 Projects grand and exhibition prize.