ARTS: F--cking Ken Courtney

Fck. Sck. Bl*w. He hit me with all three within the first minute of our conversation. Of course, I realized that it was irreverence and outrageousness that has propelled Ken Courtney onto the pages of British Vogue and other fashion, art and celebrity print within two years of founding his own fashion label, Just Another Rich Kid.

Having made his reputation as the designer of a series of titillating T-shirts featuring slogans such as "I f--ked Kelly Osbourne" and "I f--ked Paris Hilton", this Cornell-educated, Brooklyn artist managed to use those less acceptable four-letter words to acquire the more sought after ones: name and fame. Ken Courtney's work is on exhibit through April 12 at the Louise Jones Brown Gallery in the Bryan Center.

He does not target these celebrities gratuitously. He explains the ubiquitous celebrities are "media f--ked", Courtney's term for those who are first exploited and then ultimately defined as celebrities by the media. Critic and artist, he exploits them and in time becomes a celebrity target himself.

Courtney makes no spurious sanctimonious judgment calls, either. The celebrities themselves are not the thrust of his art; it is the particular phenomenon of celebrity. "Everyone loves to say, 'I saw Paris Hilton,'" he noted. "I am just taking it further and saying, "I f--ked Paris Hilton". Of course, I am not saying I actually f--ked her." Courtney is redefining the verb to express the guilty fascination that our society has with the celebrity status. In turn, celebrities feed on that fame.

This mania has fueled a variety of rumors surrounding the artist. "All unfounded", says Courtney. No, P-Diddy did not request a T-shirt boasting, "I f--ked J-Lo first". No, Giselle is not suing him for libel.

The artist uses a variety of media to highlight celebrity, including a video projected on the wall of the exhibit. There are also three truly brilliant abstract paintings, which are striking in their incongruity. They have titles, such as Andy Warhol and Eminem. What is the celebrity tie-in? The answer, I am surprised to hear, is: There is none. Courtney explains that celebrity association, no matter how distant, or, in this case, non-existent, focuses the interest on the celebrity rather than on the particular object.

Almost as if on cue, an attractive young female student approached Courtney and breathily launched into recounting some distant acquaintanship she had with Paris Hilton. This encounter seemed a serendipitous piece of performance art, yet another example illustrating Courtney's assertions. Courtney, the observer and artist, is the celebrity again. Could there be some "I f--ked Ken Courtney" shirts in the works?

-Gillian Barnard