Morrissey foretelling the death of Diana...

When Listening to The Smiths, Lady Diana is not my first thought but it seemed to dominate all of Lars Laumann's. Laumann has three video pieces in the Open Eye Gallery but only one of them held my attention, 'Morrissey foretelling the death of Diana'. It's a intricately spun web of six degrees of separation, linking The Smith's wordsmith and singer to the foretelling of Princes Diana's death in 1997. Through an extensive montage of found footage, video clips and sounds bite’s the deconstruction of song's on the 'The Queen Is Dead" album unfolds before you. He believes that cryptic clues lye in the lyrics, record covers and music videos. "I want to catch something that I might be ashamed off" is a lyric from the song "Frankly Mr. Shankly" which he says explains Diana's secret love with Mohamed Al-Fayed. Since hearing all these connections I've listen to The Smiths seminal album and If you want to make links then links can be made but I don't feel that because you can do this it justifies these theories of his. Allegedly the song's true meaning is about the Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis' feeling of equality with Morrissey and his poetic ability and his ability to be the voice of a generation. "I feel more fulfilled making Christmas cards with the mentally ill" is another great line within the song and can easily be linked with Diana and her many charitable ventures.

He has tried to rethink story structures, mixing narratives with images to create new and challenging narratives. Video collages, used material, found images, and narrative structure all play an important part in my project at the moment but he's taken it in a very different direction to me. It's a more intense exercise in Detourement but it's also an exploration into the cosmic and the impossible. If Laumann is taking this entire concept seriously and that he truly believes that the singer of a popular indie group from the 1980's can prophesied the death of a monarchical figure then I'm overwhelmed by his delusions. On the other hand if it's an extremely well thought out and structured joke then it's slightly better but ultimately feels like a joke that has fallen flat. His big mouth shouldn't strike again as it doesn't get him anywhere particularly interesting or funny.