Starfucker

2001
Video


12 minutes. Single channel.

Images: © Tim Etchells

Starfucker playfully explores the absurdity of turning language into film, creating a mischievous, virtual movie using text and soundtrack. The viewer is invited to imagine a catalogue of Hollywood A- and B-list stars in a sequence of unlikely violent or intimate scenarios – death, danger, jetlag, boredom, sex and sickness. The written text – unfolding line by line in white type on black screen – functions to summon events, actions and images directly in the mind of the viewer, while John Avery’s minimalist atmospheric soundtrack underscores the mood invoked by the text.

In 2004 Etchells and Avery collaborated to create a longer version of Starfucker, combining a projection of the video with live music and a score for three opera singers. The 2004 version was created for Opera North and Leeds Met Studio Theatre as part of their festival Resonance.

Related notebook entries