John Waters has a unique love of Christmas, and MARFA has a unique love of John Waters, so we decided to make a book about it. Introducing A MARFA Christmas with John Waters.
Dreamlanders, friends old and new, all gather to appear in this MARFICTIONAL story – actors, behind-the-scenes collaborators and others who have worked with John Waters over the years. And though the book reads as if everyone was together on one night, the fact is, like the best gifts, it took a long time to wrap this up. Each interview is housed within a dreamt-up narrative set at one of John’s annual Christmas parties.This particular event may not be real, but the dialogue is all true to life. No words are falsified in this world, but everything else is untrue.
Produced by MARFOFFICE, with curation, design and production by Alexandra Gordienko, Julia Monsell and Jodie Hill, and words by Ross Aston. A MARFA Christmas with John Waters contains shoots and interviews, ephemera, one-off letters and rare archive imagery, accompanied by a short film by Clara Cullen.
Featuring Mink Stole, Kathleen Turner, Max Farago, Traci Lords, Johnny Knoxville, Ricki Lake, Senta Simond, Jeannette Montgomery Barron, Alasdair McLellan, Pat Moran, Jess Cole, Sophie Buhai, Ethan James Green, Ricky Saiz and many others on Santa’s naughty list.
To celebrate the book’s launch and John’s US Christmas Tour, MARFOFFICE will unveil installations at Dover Street Market New York and Los Angeles for the duration of the festive period. These spaces pay homage to the famed Christmas scene in John Waters’ Female Trouble, with the addition of a giant cockroach relaxing in front of a television set watching a MARFILM shot in Baltimore of John opening presents.
