by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

“The Last Unicorn,” which is how Marina Abramovic defined James Franco in her documentary on him, is relentlessly engaged in the arts. Acting, directing, teaching film-making, writing, and exploring the world of the visual arts, Franco, seems to gather success in each of his endeavours.

April 10th marked the opening of his exhibition at New York’s Pace Gallery, New Film Stills, that will run until May 3rd. James presented a series of gelatine silver print photographs made in 2013, where he recreated Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills by  retracing the same poses, attire and scenarios that the female American photographer, film-director and conceptual artist adopted 30 years ago.

Self-irony welds with melancholia, oxymoronic moods transpire from the shots that show a bearded James Franco dressed up as a lady, who embodies a misfit Hitchcockian drag, overwhelmed by doldrums.