Exploring the Unseen
A series of interviews of Artists and Speakers featured at the [CODAME](/orgs/codame) [ART+TECH Festival [2018]](/orgs/codame/events/art-tech-festival-2018) by [Irene Malatesta](/artists/irene-malatesta) [Norma Jeane](/artists/norma-jeane) incognito in Los Angeles. Photo by James Haspiel. When considering multimedia artist Norma Jeane , the first impression that strikes is one of mystery and denial. Norma Jeane is the pseudonym of an Italian artist who does not wish to be identified. Where many discussions of an artist’s body of work might begin with personal biography in an attempt to understand the human experience that led to creating the work, that won’t do in the case of the elusive, cerebral, and multi-talented Norma Jeane. This is entirely by design. Having chosen one of the most famous women in the world as a namesake (Norma Jeane Mortenson Baker, who you might know better as Marilyn Monroe), the artist Norma Jeane has built a 25-year-long career on the idea of making that which is typically invisible, visible, and vice versa. This endeavor — to expose the unnoticed while erasing the expected — has been composed of a few different recurring elements. Multiple paths lead to this end, but the name is a helpful starting point. When I met with Norma Jeane this month via video chat, he explained, “What was really interesting and fascinating to me about Marilyn is not Marilyn but Norma Jeane. The fact that she actually split her life in two, had a terrible beginning, very tough and sad, and when she actually found success, she needed to split her personality to do it. [She was] such a complex person, who ultimately represents the most successful pop icon, which is something so simple. I’m also super interested in what’s normal, in everyday life, everyday objects.” One might describe pop icons as the closest that human beings can become to “everyday objects.” Populating the media landscape and entertaining us from a distance, they are adored yet somehow, not valued in an individual sense due to their ubiquity. Norma Jeane points out that often, what has the most value in an objective sense is often thought of as something that is extremely rare or strange, and that everyday “usual” objects aren’t typically examined closely: “[We] don’t consider them in an analytical way because they are just the landscape around us. But, in fact, they can be super complex, as though there were a ‘backstage’ area of reality.” Given the amount of time and effort many people spend talking about, sharing, and otherwise engaging in [the creation](/orgs/codame/projects/the-creation) of pop culture and icons like Marilyn Monroe, Norma Jeane has an undeniable point. The persona, he explains, is a way to engage with the “dark side” of culture.