Pop Star Series

by Neal Medlyn, photographs by Paula Court, book design by Chris Giarmo

162 pages full color

Neal Medlyn’s Pop Star Series spanned seven shows and eight years, as he remade himself in the images of Lionel Richie, Phil Collins, Prince, Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Insane Clown Posse and Michael Jackson, excavating the deep, generative weirdness of celebrity. Paula Court’s photographs accompany all seven scripts, intertwined with a running annotation by Medlyn revealing both his wide-ranging sources and the layers of pattern and interconnection that run across the Series. The result is an indispensable guide to the creative process of one of downtown New York’s wildest heroes.

“He keeps weirdness alive.” —Time Out New York

“Medlyn deals in theatrical miracles. He transforms the stuff of our celebrity-obsessed, media-saturated world into impossibly beautiful, absurdist happenings … He’s amazing.” —WNYC, All Things Considered