sleek magazine : Comic | Tragic

Is it possible to laugh oneself to death? If only.... The new issue of sleek – a magazine about Moslems, Munich and Marilyn – shows that art is a joke and life is a game. However it is a joke that hardly anyone laughs at and a game that we often have to play alone. And as cover girl Marilyn Monroe knew only too well, life can be so terribly lonely that the only way out is death. But we don’t want to make you feel depressed here! With pictures of death and other tragedies on almost every magazine cover, sleek is more of a consolatory leader down a sombre valley. For example with the very serious artist short interviews – if you believe that artists are difficult to interview then you should try it when they’re dead! sleek has made the impossible possible and chatted about the tragedy of leaving this world at such an early age with some of the most famous people who died young during the last few years. sleek also spoke to Maurizio Cattelan, one of the curators of the 4th Berlin biennale, who doesn’t take himself too seriously and who loves macabre fun like an installation, which involved hanging three children by their necks in an oak tree in a Milan park and who always finds a reason to laugh – even when he’s being interviewed by sleek. And also Chris Ofili used to enjoy irony and working with elephant dung. But it doesn’t feature in his art work anymore, however replacing it is some even more serious shit. And somewhat of a less successful career has been had by New York artist Alfredo Martinez. His Basquiat forgeries were actually going down very well, until he ended up in prison for them. He whiled away the time with hunger strikes and creating original art. Funnily enough this is exactly what has made him a darling of the art world, which he once annoyed with art that was too poor and forgeries that were too good. As well as the latest cover girl Marilyn, photographed by Tina Bara, sleek still has a whole lot of other self-confident models to offer. For example the young Kemp, shot by Melodie McDaniel, who can testify huge acting commitment: She gave a convincing performance as a desperate suicide addict and hung herself onto a balcony railing, without protection, high above a street canyon in Manhattan – ready to end her life to be immortalised in sleek. Photographer McDaniel is renowned for bringing out the best in her models. As well as fashion photography she has also proved herself as a director of music videos for Madonna, Patti Smith and Jazz Lee. Or the girl, who was so enthusiastic about the different make-up approach of Paris photographer Jean-François LePage and strolls through the editorial with a Smurf blue mask. Or the Karl Valentin look-alike, in typical clownesque poses, shot by Kerstin Jacobsen. And plus there are more articles photographed by Keetja Allard, Karl Lagerfeld, Brigitte Niedermair and other, tragic mishaps, oversized comic figures, frightening clown faces, tragic film star destinies, disfigured beauties, ...