Live Evil (Kuala Lumpur)

Pfeiffer has returned repeatedly to the figure of Michael Jackson, whose complex and indeed contradictory status as a black pop icon illuminates the paradoxes of racial difference, obsession, and alienation within contemporary culture. As the artist states: “While I’m drawn to the use of images that are universally familiar, like the image of Michael Jackson or of sports heroes, my interest is not so much the famous personalities themselves but the aura that surrounds them. I’m looking for ways to intensify that aura, to bring it into the foreground and make it the focal point of the image. All the methods I use to alter figures in my work—erasing, refracting, mirroring, looping, etc.—are intended to work toward this end.” In Pfeiffer’s Live Evil works, he manipulated footage of live performances by Jackson, transforming his body into an abstracted form resembling a skeletal insect or an animated Rorschach test. The mirror-like shimmering surfaces of Jackson’s costumes highlight the intensity of spectatorship: while the glimmering brilliance of the figure captures our collective attention, Jackson’s physical form is shielded from view.