Bio

In her videos and installations, Michele O’Marah (b. 1967 Vallejo, California) employs the handmade as a strategy to combat the mainstream media’s propensity to reduce substance by rejecting complexity. Blow Me (2012) continues the exploration of culturally constructed ideas of femininity that O’Marah began with her remake of Valley Girl (2002) and her reinterpretation of Barb Wire (A Girl’s Gotta Do What a Girl’s Gotta Do, 2010). Based on the life of eccentric fashion icon Isabella Blow, the film looks at ideals of style and beauty. Through her flamboyant personal style, Blow embodied her own desire for aesthetic drama in everyday life. Her work as a fashion editor and her discovery of young talents like the milliner Philip Treacy encouraged a broader acceptance of the avant-garde. Not conventionally beautiful, Blow struggled with the contradiction between her appearance and her desire for beauty, battling depression and ultimately committing suicide in 2007. Blow Me presents a pointed interpretation of the icon and her obsessions, filtered through O’Marah’s lowbrow aesthetic.