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An Ode to the Hidden Face of Heath Ledger
An Ode to the Hidden Face of Heath Ledger
This Wednesday night just passed, both of my parent's went to Sydney's Archibald Prize, as they do every year. For those who don't know what the Archibald Prize is, it is 'regarded as the most important portraiture prize, and is the most prominent of all arts prizes, in Australia,' according to Wikipedia. In fact, the competition (as such) is open to any one holding a citizenship in an country in Australiasia.
Any way... back on topic.
My mother came home that night, at 10.25, just as I was watching Carl Williams shoot his Italian counterpart dead on Underbelly, sat down next to me and placed her head in her hands.
This got my attention.
It turns out that the Archibald hadn't been as great as it had been years prior - not saying that the art was bad, just a little bit too artyz-fartzy for her taste. But in all her years of going to this fancy art gallery in Sydney, she had never been moved by a painting as much as one had made her feel this year.
'Heath Ledger' she spoke to me sadly, 'it's such as shame, Heath Ledger, how no one could have noticed'.
Being one of those many teenage girls around the globe who woke up on the 23rd of January (22nd of Jan for some) and whilst making a cup of tea, heard the gut wrenching news that Heath Ledger had died in New York (Trust me, that entire day the TV did not leave Sky News), something involving Heath Ledger was more inportant than a Gangland war that had happened in Melbourne years ago.
So, my mothers words naturally caught me attention.
I had heard through the media that an artist had taken it upon himself to pay tribute to one of our countrys most renown actors, but I honestly hadn't thought of it as anything else - just another person cashing in on the unfortuate tragedy of others. It didn't occur to me that it would have this kind of affect on my normally composed mother.
The painting it self is disturbing - theres no other way to describe it.
Heath is represented through three faces in the artwork, each with it's only hidden story. There's the guy we all fell in love with in '10 Things I Hate About You' . There's the man who tried so desperately to escape the crap that comes with Hollywood on the opposite side of the painting, whose dark expression is even more haunting than the colours in the background. Then finally, in the middle of the painting is Health. That's the only name I can give to him, Heath. In the painting 'Bright and Shiny Heath' and 'Dark and Twisty Heath' are whispering secretively to their counterpart Heath (sorry for the Grey's Anatomy puns, they just slip out).
I am not sure what it is about Heath that makes my chest fill with dread; it could be his brown eyes that are blank voids, the tired wrinkles that make his face look like leather, or his shirtless posture that just seems so... helpless.
In December, the artist behind 'Heath' (thats the actual name of the painting), sat down with Mrs Ledger and Heath Ledger over coffee and pikelets in Perth, to discuss the portriat. In December, a month before Heath's passing.
Yes - that is what makes my body shiver most about this painting, it was created a month before his dealth during a time when the artist himself described his subject as (and I quote), 'relaxed and happy'. According to an article on news.com.au, the portrait was orginally meant to depict one of the three faces as screaming - the very concept an idea of Heath Ledger's and scrapped by Vincent Fantauzzo (the artist).
"I guess it's the whispering, the voices, the frustration or something comical - all the different ways that we might be thinking in our own mind," Fantauzzo said.
Or that of Heath Ledgers.
It makes you wonder what the outcome would have been if the painting had been released the same month in which it was painted. Would the whole world slow down and try and pick up it's latest fallen angel? Would Heath Ledger be laying in some rehab centre off the cost of Spain instead of in a coffin six feet under.
If only.
And yet, we all know that isn't true. This painting, whose release was eagarly enticipated by it's subject was Heath Ledger's last testiment to this world, he knew what was going to happen; that all of that wasn't worth it, it's hard not to look into the eyes of the central Heath and hear that. I guess in the end, one Health was screaming louder than the other one was whispering.
Rest in peace mate, here's praying that where ever you are... that's it's everything you ever hoped.
The artist, Vincent Fantauzzo, and his painting 'Heath'.
Unfortuately, 'Heath' didn't win the Archibald Prize (neither did Neil Finn!).
