digitized video shot on VHS tape 

TRT 1 hour 7 minutes​

2024

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Inspired by the format of the elusive film Screen Test #2, featuring René Rivera (aka Mario Montez) and the voice of Ronald Tavel by Andy Warhol and his collaborator Jack Smith, SCREEN TEST I : CELESTE is an experiment in self-reflection, an attempt to unfold the psyche. Mario Montez was one of Warhol's many muses; her public identity as well as her own sense of self, were created and recorded on camera in the most peculiar and often exploitative of ways. Tavel's writing on Screen Test #2 makes it clear that Mario Montez loses her sense of self on camera, through the role she's being made to take on. 

 

SCREENTEST I : CELESTE is situated within my interest in studying what I see is at the core of my work and of many other queer and trans artists: the idea that the artist is their own muse. As artists we fabricate ourselves carefully through our work to understand ourselves better and to manifest who we want to be. This meta-film is a stream of consciousness, an emotional letter of love to Celeste and a vulnerable statement on drag.​