GETTING READY MONTAGE 1: ALWAYS LAYLA an installation by LES666 aka Lesley Marshall 16mm B+W film loop // colour marker // portable CD player w. headphones Starring Audrey Lourdes aka Layla Kalilah Brown Featuring a playlist of excerpts from the music of Prince, The Knife, Peaches, Justice, The Marvelettes, Rihanna, Solange, Kanye West, & Yelle Built on an obsession with feminine iconography and the compression of a good time through the narrative film montage, this piece (re)creates a stylized version of this classic cinema motif; one which never ends, a saturated beauty experience. Getting ready is a simple, sometimes daily act. This is a portrait of a beautiful woman putting on things and taking off. Of glamour, of resignation of the self to the world for the day or evening; of objects strewn about, of stuff full of sparkles, gold, jewels and powder. The person: Layla. Same, constant, Layla is always in this perpetual scene. "Always Layla" in text appears. Her presence, her meaning, her self referential affirmation, "#blackgirlmagic." Commissioned by THE WINDOWS COLLECTIVE Group Installation April 2016 at The Shenkman Arts Centre