In the fall of 2014, a group of visual artists called Schnellebuntebilder joined conceptual artist Leif Elggren to converse with the spirit of Andy Warhol.
The whole stunt was part of a marketing effort by Absolut, which had just come out with a Warhol-branded vodka. We can imagine the brainstorming session that happened in some ad agency’s conference room, during which a low-level creative, in a desperate effort to lengthen her list of ideas, floated a ghostly interview concept which was, somehow, not shot down immediately. The artist had famously collaborated with Absolut once before — maybe he would do so again, from beyond the grave?
Elggren, selected as the medium, got to work researching meaningful places in Warhol’s life and setting up recording equipment. He collected clips of Warhol (supposedly) speaking and, in a huge performance piece at a Warhol vodka launch party set against an illuminated backdrop by Schnellebuntebilder, blended them into DJ A-Trak’s setlist. The disembodied voice of pop art’s eternal king allegedly vocalized statements such as “It’s so beautiful,” “She let go,” and, “Leave me here.”
The entire experiment was, as expected, creepy. And yet somehow disappointing. Given the chance to ask Andy Warhol — cultural icon, maverick of the arts — anything at all, the vodka maker didn’t leave us with a single compelling response. It seemed, to us, a very, very, very tragically wasted opportunity.
So we set off on our own very noble, deeply journalistic and DEFINITELY NOT batshit insane mission to contact the spirit of Andy Warhol on what would have been his 87th birthday to ask him some better questions.
What, for example, ever happened to the 2,000 bottles of Dom Perignon Warhol helped purchase before his death, which was intended for consumption on January 1, 2000 but mysteriously disappeared? And are the lyrics to that one Dylan song really about Warhol’s poor treatment of poor little rich girl Edie Sedgwick?
We gathered our best digital and analog recorders, downloaded a few iPhone apps, and found Warhol’s first Factory — a studio space where he made paintings and screenprints, hung out with famous friends and held crazy parties. The building was demolished in 1967; it’s now a parking garage. At midnight, we showed up with a piece of birthday cake, lit the candles and floated some questions into thin air.
Q: Have you been “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” in the afterlife?
Ignoring our very human chatter at the end, we’ll take that as a yes. Or something. Later, given his experience with fast food burgers, we asked another.
Q: McDonald’s or Burger King?
McDonald’s, obviously.
Some muted clips of Warhol’s experimental videos were the closest thing we had to personal belongings, which Elggren said, in his Reddit AMA, could draw Warhol out of the ether. And yet somewhat surprisingly — or not, depending on your presuppositions — a good portion of our questions seemed to go unanswered. We asked whether the quote, “In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes,” referred to social media, nonexistent during the time of his death in 1987. We also asked if he enjoys the “art pop” of Lady Gaga.
At some point, audio producer Katelyn Bogucki asked Warhol to blow out one of his birthday candles. In what felt like a minute — but, when replayed on the recording, only amounted to a few seconds — the wind picked up and extinguished a candle. SPOOKY. A few moments later, the flames shifted and reignited it. Whether that was convenient timing or contact is a hairy question that can be debated amongst yourselves.
Q: For whom would you design an album cover in 2015?
One Direction? FKA Twigs? Azealia Banks?
It’s tough to discern between various background noises — a small group of men were gathered a few dozen feet away, speaking quietly. A few trucks drove by. A particularly chatty cicada occupied a tree somewhere above us. An audio blip on our old-school cassette recorder — as if someone placed their palm over the mic for a moment — continues to puzzle us. There were a couple weird noises, though, that we couldn’t make out at all. We’ll leave them up to you.
So, what did we learn here? If Andy Warhol’s ghost exists — and deep down we all know the answer to that question — he’s a pretty chill guy. We can imagine him hanging out in some glittery nirvana with Edie, his mother and three-eighths of The Velvet Underground, forever and ever.
And ever.
Gifs created by Priscilla Frank, HuffPost Culture writer extraordinaire.
HuffPost audio producer Katelyn Bogucki assisted with the technical aspects of this post.
Additional help was provided by HuffPost Comedy editor Andy McDonald. On a fright scale between Velma and Scooby Doo, he considers himself a Fred.
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