The World of Doreen Grey

"The world of right is black and white, so says the blonde known as Miss Grey.  Remembering a rendezvous, she had that day a deja vu.  What a way to live."

densemilt

Lenore Herb took on the identity of Doreen Grey for a multitude of reasons. Like many aspects of her life, there were always many layers to even the most private of jokes.  First, adopting a new identity was a punk rock thing to do.  Second,  the moniker Doreen Grey exists on a level as a self-deprecating private joke for her seeming agelessness.

Last and most important,  the name “Doreen Grey” was chosen as a feminist appropriation of,  and a play on words of,  Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. It works as a reminder that her creations, her video images, were timeless documentations of a time of youth and rebellious, hedonistic energy.  As such, the images remain trapped in time, not growing old as we all age around them.  

 

In the Wilde novel,The Picture of Dorian Gray, we find recurring themes of aestheticism, hedonism, influence, duality and duplicity of nature.   

Lord Henry remarks, “I should fancy that crime was to them what art is to us, simply a method of procuring extraordinary sensations".

 

Interesting footnote, in her final days, Lenore and I watched the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which was another gothic story with similar themes.   The irony was not lost upon either one of us.