Artists: Charles Atlas, Alvin Baltrop, Timothy Carey, Johanna Constantine, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Marti Domination, Scott Ewalt, Georg Gatsas, Brandon Olson, Kembra Pfahler, Cynthia Plaster Caster, Tabboo! (Stephen Tashjian), Paul Thek

Vox Populi and PARTICIPANT INC are pleased to present Dead Flowers, a group exhibition based on the work of actor/director Timothy Carey. Carey became known as a pioneer of underground film due to his rarely seen 1962 film, The World's Greatest Sinner. Screenings of this and other unreleased films by Carey, as well as a presentation of his ephemera and artifacts, are organized in cooperation with Romeo Carey, the artist's son and Executor of the Timothy Carey Estate. The exhibition draws themes from Carey’s unique correlation between his life and work, which sought to define what it means to be an artist through an uncompromising understanding of the meaning of success. Carey stated his rationale for declining his potentially lucrative mainstream break in order to preserve his integrity as an artist as follows:

“We slip. We bleed. Cassavetes taught me that. The truth is, I never really cared about conventional success. [...] I was offered a spot in both The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. [...] But I didn’t do either show, because if I had, I woulda been just like any other actor—out for the money.”

 
Supported by the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative, this project is a collaboration of PARTICIPANT INC and Vox Populi, an artist-run nonprofit in Philadelphia.