Elton John portrait of Gaydar profiles featured for LGBT History Month

February 21, 2012

A portrait of Lady Gaga and an image of Elton John’s face – compiled from thousands of Gaydar users’ profile pictures – are among a collection of works celebrating LGBT History Month.

The collection is called ‘Gaze,’ a series of portraits from influential LGBT figures.

Those Gaydar users who visited Steve Rosenthal’s profile from 2007 to 2009 will be used to create Elton John’s portrait.

Rock Hudson, Rudolph Valentino and George Michael are among the other portraits in the collection.

Rosenthal said he decided “to catalogue the users who left a visible track, or rather who did not actively erase evidence of their visit to my page in my ‘friends’ drawer.”

In an interview with The Pandorian, he said that he had been working with users’ profiles for some time.

“I had for a long while been making works primarily from text, and I imagined I might perhaps appropriate text from their profiles. It wasn’t until 2009 that I decided to use the information in such a way that has led to the creation of these works.”

Other artists featured in Gaze include Max Wiedemann and Alec Monopoly.

“Gaze aims to reach beyond the gay community by getting together gay and straight artists from all walks of life and styles – from traditional portraiture to graffiti, glass and multi-media – while also challenging people’s perception of what actually makes a gay icon,” said Fra Francis Taloen, curator of the Gaze collection.

“Taking inspiration from movies, record covers and popular culture in general, Gaze will showcase contemporary British art at its best.”
 

Image Source: Richard Mushet