#105
With distinctive eye makeup, silvery blond pixie haircut and unmatched beauty, Edith Minturn “Edie” Sedgwick (b. 1943) was referred to as “Femme fatale” in the 1967 song by the Velvet Underground.
She was the “It girl” of the mid-60s and a Warhol Factory star, as well as his muse and brief lover. She and Warhol created 18 films together, including Poor Little Rich Girl and Vinyl. Additionally, she starred in Chelsea Girls, but due to issues with the contract, the footage was cut into a different film. She was eventually pushed out of his circle and replaced by German singer Nico who did star in Chelsea Girls.
In search of freedom and artistic identity, she moved into Suite 105 at the Chelsea in 1966.
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“Leonard Cohen, the poet, was living down the hall … I took him down the hall to meet Edie. Zoe, her friend, had fallen asleep on the floor. The speed had given out and she'd collapsed on this tube of glue, which had sprung open under her, and she’d become glued to Edie's floor. Every time she'd turn over in her sleep, her shirt would stick. Edie was on the phone. She had a cat with her, Bob Dylan's cat's son. Smoke, his name was … He said to me, "I don't know if you should tell her this, or if I should, but those candles are arranged in such a way so they're casting a bad spell. Fire and destruction. She shouldn't fool around with these things, because they’re meaningful." It was very complex. It had to be someone who had really been into candle-arranging and voodoo Haitian candle numbers to figure it out. But when Leonard told Edie, she said she didn't want to hear about such things, that was silly, they were just candles. That was ironic, wasn't it? I mean, her life was full of warnings, probably. It was very soon after that the apartment caught fire and the cat was lost.” (Fields, 1994, p.326)
Fig.2. Edie Sedgwick with one of her horses in New York City, August 1965, Enzo Sellerio
Fig.2. is a black & white portrait of Edie posing for Vogue in her iconic tights and leotard outfit while balancing a ballet pose on a leather rhinoceros. I picked this particular photograph to analyse after remembering Roland Barthe’s Punctum (1980), a term he refers as a strong response felt by the viewer in relation to a certain detail in the image.
The elegant look and interior are contradicted by the symbolism in her pose and drawing in the back, referencing the bohemian and artistic freedom that she so craved. It was this need and her financial situation (and the accidental fire of her NYC apartment) that led her to the Chelsea Hotel. The detail I refer to is the drawing in the background, which depicts one of her many artworks involving horses, demonstrating her love for the animal and her reminiscences of growing up riding horses on her Californian ranch.
Her pose, outfit and facial expression touch on the innocence of her youth, and genuineness which made her vulnerable to maltreatment and objectification. She was then left with heavy substance abuse and eating disorders.
“I want to reach people and express myself. You have to put up with the risk of being misunderstood if you are going to try to communicate. You have to put up with people projecting their own ideas, attitudes, misunderstanding you. But it's worth being a public fool if that's all you can be in order to communicate yourself.” (Sedgwick, n/a)