Andy Dead Cam

The Warhol Museum website is featuring a 24-hour a day live feed video of Andy's grave site. Yup, just his grave site. It's in honor of his birthday. He would have been 85 today. Who says death has to end your shot at enduring and perpetual bizarre celebrity fame? This concept mirrors his seminal film "Empire" which is an eight hour uninterrupted, non-narrated shot of the Empire State Building. Also, like his overall concept for Pop Art, it makes, through visual media, the mundane and usually-uninteresting, an object of thought-provoking focus bestowing a celebrity-like mystique upon it.

In the 15 minutes or so of viewing I gave it (get it?), I could hear at least two separate groups of visitors talking about Andy and the live stream cam. One girl could even be seen as she walked up to the gravestone and placed a memento on it. Many objects are adorning it today...silver balloons, Campbell Soup cans and flowers. His mothers grave, right behind his, looks like it got a bit of attention too. How nice.

Andy has a quote, of course, that even references his ideas about his own grave you know:

"I never understood why when you died, you didn't just vanish, and everything could just keep going on the way it was only you just wouldn't be there. I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph and no name.

Well, actually, I'd like it to say “figment.”"

- Andy Warhol