Louis Waldon in Chronicles:
Los Angeles/Bel-Air (July 1999)
2002, 42 minutes
This chapter of the Chronicles is in many respects
a sequel to the portrait of his good friend and former Warhol actor
Louis Waldon.
It is also a cliché of the good life served-up
Los Angeles style – the sun, the implants, and the traffic. Waldon
invited Auder to spend a few days at the home/compound of his wealthy
friend Don. The situation recalls Waldon and Auder's first meeting in
Rome thirty years prior as documented in Auder's earlies surviving work,
the film Keeping Busy.
Neither Waldon nor Auder (recently divorced from
his second wife, Cindy Sherman) has lost his penchant for shooting the
breeze. This time they find themselves in the lap of luxury with the
same estranged relationship to the good life, i.e. forever outside looking
in albeit from close-up.
In this instance, Auder uses a shiny black Mercedes
with fallen blossoms from surrounding flora scattered on its hood as
a means to construck a stunning vanitas. Since Auder's 1994 video portrait,
Waldon has some new wrinkles and has gained more weight but these do
not reflect age as much as an increase in his charms which are in full
effect throughout. (He gives a poolside performance not to be believed.)