Lena Kalleitner
Central to the piece is a looping animation featuring an altar honoring Mangione like a divine figure, alongside replicas of his gun performing a ritualistic dance in homage.
Surrounding the altar are 3D-printed excerpts of fan fiction sourced online, including romanticized and explicit (smut) stories about him. By blending the sacred, absurd, and profane, the work critiques the unsettling ways online culture mythologizes flawed figures through obsession and virality.
As I scrolled through these posts, I started thinking about the strange phenomenon of how online culture transforms flawed individuals into cult figures. Folk heroes have always existed, but social media seems to amplify the process, often turning moments of infamy into objects of obsession and even erotic fascination.
This strange mix of fascination and unease led me to create *imagine he was ugly*, a provocative exploration of the surreal glorification surrounding Mangione and the unsettling dynamics of how social media celebrates flawed figures.
As the song was integrated into Instagram and TikTok reels, it experienced a resurgence in popularity, as evidenced below. The diagram illustrates a sharp rise in the number of Spotify playlists to which the song was added in early December, around the time Mangione shot Brian Thompson.
In the project's early stages, I contemplated incorporating this diagram, presenting it on a small screen accompanied by a brief contextual description. However, I quickly abandoned this idea, finding it too abstract in nature.
- He is a hustler, he's no good at all
- He is a loser, he's a bum, bum, bum, bum
- He lies, he bluffs, he's unreliable
- He is a sucker with a gun, gun, gun, gun
- I know you told me I should stay away
- I know you said he's just a dog astray
- He is a bad boy with a tainted heart
- And even I know this ain't smart
- But mama I'm in love with a criminal
- And this type of love isn't rational, it's physical
- Mama please don't cry, I will be alright
- All reason aside I just can't deny, I love the guy
- He is a villain by the devil's law
- He is a killer just for fun, fun, fun, fun
- That man's a snitch and unpredictable
- He's got no conscience, he got none, none, none, none
- All I know, should've let go, but no
- 'Cause he's a bad boy with a tainted heart
- And even I know this ain't smart
I was struck by the sheer volume of messages left for him on the website, as well as the unwavering dedication with which fans and supporters engaged in discussions on Reddit threads. This fascinated me and gave me a glimpse into the extent of the obsession surrounding him.
Particularly revealing was the pro-tip “No cum or other body fluids on the mail,” which made it clear to me that a distinctly heavy sexual component is deeply embedded in this phenomenon.
The vast volume of written (fan) material ultimately became the focal point of my work. I selected a fanfiction story that, once again, alluded to the hype surrounding Britney Spears' song 'Mama I’m in Love with a Criminal,' and contained explicit sexual content of a particularly intense nature.
I take him to the hilt, and I don't have to do much because he's using my mouth. He's using me like as toy aggressively thrusting into the back of my throat. Most girls hate when a man does that but I fucking love it. I love it when I get used like this, I feel a small tear run down my cheek. The room is filled with the sound of slapping and Luigi's groans. I feel him swell in my mouth and the small veins bulging against my tongue. He explodes on my tongue and white liquid drips down my throat and chin. He doesn't pull out until I'm he's fully unloaded into my mouth as I swallow.
I selected three passages from the story and printed the text onto plaques using a filament printer. I had to experiment with the thickness and height of the font before achieving the desired results.
He flips me over onto to my back hovering over me. He reaches for my shirt pulling it over my head. He looks at my black sports bra blushing. He leaves me in sweatpants now. He wanted to do some exploring himself it appears.
He runs his hands over every crease and curve of my bra, his hands were hot, and his face was blushing big time. I watched as hand glides over my chest.
Drawing from this vision, I created two 3D animations as the second component of the project.
The first animation depicts the altar, approached through a slow, deliberate camera movement.
The altar’s construction is almost entirely composed of a nested arrangement of countless replicas of the weapon Luigi used to murder Brian Thompson.
In a manner similar to Luigi, I downloaded these as 3D models from the internet and subsequently integrated them into the altar design.
The weapon 19X V1-V3 was uploaded by the user 'Chairmanwon' on the platform odysee.com and is freely available, with the only restriction being that commercial use is prohibited.
Odysee is an American, decentralized video platform built on the LBRY blockchain. It positions itself as an alternative to services such as YouTube, with a focus on free expression and decentralization. The platform allows users to upload, share, and monetize videos through cryptocurrencies, while ensuring content preservation via a peer-to-peer network. Content on Odysee is retrieved from the LBRY network, eliminating the need for a central server.