Liz Goldwyn: Hollywood Royalty

The best way to describe her is: the Hollywood royalty of the creative arts. Fashion Writer, Filmmaker, and Jewellery Designer are just a few titles that fit Liz Goldwyn. Having worked in fashion, art and photography since she was 16, Liz naturally attended the School of Visual Arts in NYC. While still in college, she contributed her expertise to help establish the fashion department at Sotheby’s New York. Liz has done impressively well as a fashion writer, being named the New York editor of French VOGUE in 2001 by Editor-in-Chief, Carine Roitfeld, as well as freelancing for different publications. Her inherited gift of filmmaking, (she’s the granddaughter of Samuel Goldwyn, an original Hollywood studios mogul), has been highly regarded by the film community. “Pretty Things” (2005), “Underwater Ballet”, and “LA at night”(2009) are Liz’s self-written, and self-produced films that have been showcased internationally. And last, but most certainly not least, the jewellery designer launched her own line in 2002 creating one of a kind designs sold most notably at Barneys NY and Colette in Paris.

Liz: I love being in Europe and Japan, the sense  of history in the architecture and the (relative)  lack of outdoor advertising. In LA, billboards  are everywhere, commercializing an already  artificially lit sky line. I suppose I wanted to see  something beautiful in the sky in place of advertisements for shampoo and car insurance. I had made a short film called ‘Underwater  Ballet’ (2008) and decided to show it via the  medium of electronic billboards. In collaboration  with Clear Channel Communications, I showed stills from the film on 86 digital billboards  in Los Angeles in April and May 2009.

In New York, the whole film played in the centre  of Times Square, twice an hour, on a giant specta colour billboard in May 2009. As part of the commissioned project I did for Le Bon Marche  in Paris, I made a series of films called ‘LA At  Night’(2009). We shot my billboards in context.  They were intercut with time-lapse shots  of freeways and blown out car headlights, which  were layered to create a kaleidoscopic, ‘jewelled’  effect. The images together form a meditation  on the night time landscape of Los Angeles; a sky lit by artificial lights beaming from advertisements and car culture. The soundtrack contains  no traffic noises at all; rather it follows a meditation,  using breath, wind, a low hum, and bells. I think part of what makes Los Angeles so  beautiful is the juxtaposition of the real and  the unreal. I remember for years, the set from Dolly Parton’s ‘Last Little Whore House in Texas’  was still up on the Fox lot and visible from  the street. It was an entire painted facade of a  Western town, but behind the front there was  nothing. In LA, you really have to look behind  the surface of things, sometimes it is empty,  but other times there are beautiful surprises.

FAULT: As an advertisement on over 86 billboards, where else do you see art being exhibited?

Liz: Everywhere! On a daily basis you can  choose to dress a certain way, or sing aloud in  the streets, or grow a strange plant or make art

with your food! There should be no limitation  to how we see art. I am a big believer in public  art. I think art is and should be for the people as  a tool to educate and enlighten. Sometimes the  formal gallery and museum context can alienate.

FAULT: What are you currently working on?

Liz: Too much!

FAULT: There is fluidity with your work, it seems to cross over all sorts of areas, visually as well as commercially, has that always been the case?

Liz: I would say that my work always comes from a place of research, of wanting to explore new areas  whether connected to sexuality, science or the  spiritual. This may express itself via the medium of film, text, jewellery, music, etc… For example,  my copper nugget collection of jewellery was inspired by research for a forthcoming (historical  fiction) book based on the world of prostitution

FAULT: From which creative expression do you feel most emerged in?

Liz: At the moment it is completing a new  work based in prostitution. I started my research  in this world concurrently to Pretty  Things, and it’s been about eight years  now. Without revealing too many details,  it’ll be another departure for me, with both  text and visual components forthcoming

FAULT: What is your FAULT?

Liz: I have so many…

Interview by Silvana Lagos