By
Courtney Constable
Lady Gaga has expressed a strong desire to
exist as both an artist and a musician since the beginning of her career. This
desire has manifested itself in many ways throughout the years, but was perhaps
first exemplified in the Fame era by
her earliest persona Candy Warhol, whom Gaga presented to fans as pop music’s
female answer to infamous artist Andy Warhol. Using fashion and music as her
chosen artistic mediums, Gaga often highlights the influence that pop culture
has on the ever-changing world of art. Now, with the beginning of the ARTPOP era, Gaga’s preoccupation with
the relationship between art and pop culture has been put center stage. This
emphasis was more easily identifiable than ever before in her performance at
the 2013 iTunes Festival, particularly during “Swine.”
Gaga first set the stage for “Swine” with her
August 2013 VMA “Applause” performance, during which she embodied the role of
the canvas, first by wearing a large, square white headpiece (a blank canvas)
and then by actually having her face painted during the number (this has been
more fully discussed on Gaga Stigmata
– here and here). In
the week following her VMA performance and leading up to the iTunes Festival,
Gaga turned the tables, this time inviting her fans to become the canvas
by providing her Twitter followers with a list of “acceptable attire for
#Swinefest...” The list included what she described as “ARTCLOTHES,” which she
said would be necessary for the “paint zone” that would be present during her
show. She later clarified on 28 August that “#ARTCLOTHES are clothes you don’t mind getting
covered in live art!” This short dialogue set the tone for Gaga’s unveiling of
several tracks from the upcoming ARTPOP
album, but gave particular insight into the artistic spectacle that was her
performance of the highly anticipated song “Swine”.
