"Fanatic" - a solo show feautruing the work of New York artist Jillian Mcdonald - opens at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia on February 1st, and runs through March 1st, 2008.

This retrospective of sorts highlights work from the past five years which can best be described as culture-jamming.

In Mcdonald's recent work spanning video, web art, performance, and photography, she addresses the American cult of celebrity, the fantasy that buoys extreme fandom, and the mechanisms of "fear as entertainment" at work in horror films. The presence of her image in the work serves not as a self-portrait, but as a projection of universal emotions such as desire or fear. In "Me and Billy Bob" she digitally manipulated romantic scenes from Hollywood films starring actor Billy Bob Thornton, creating a soft critique of celebrity obsession. In "Screaming", she inserted herself into popular horror films such as The Shining and Alien, screaming at the monsters to scare them away or blow them to smithereens. She confounds the traditional roles of "victim" and "predator", or "star" and "fan", to transcend cinematic conventions. In "Horror Makeup" she applies makeup on a daily subway commute, transforming herself into a zombie.

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