THE LUMINOUS FLYERS began popping up on Lower Manhattan lamp posts last month. But instead of the usual advertisements for concerts or tattoo parlours, they carried a straightforward request in clunky typeface: 'Dear Mr Wes Anderson, Where Are You? Sarah.'
Passers-by began to e-mail to friends photos of the oddball bid to find the director of such movies as Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. Before long, blogs and websites, including popular media gossip site Gawker.com, were picking up on it. Highlighting the quest, Gawker said they, too, were out to find Anderson, although their effort 'involves a tire iron and an attempt to get back the US$10.75 we paid to sit through The Life Aquatic'.
As it turns out, the person behind the flyers is not a crazed admirer but former Island School pupil Sarah Law Mae-zhi. Now a fashion student at Parsons the New School of Design in New York, she came up with the scheme to meet her 'favourite director' because of another idol - Hong Kong-born designer Vivienne Tam.
The 20-year-old says the relatively easy way she secured a four-month internship with Tam in New York showed that not all heroes have to be elusive. 'It was something I'd never imagined happening, but after simply sending in an application I found myself working for an icon who has inspired me to do fashion,' she says.
So Law tried her luck with another hero, coming up with the idea for her search for Anderson a year ago. Describing it as a 'project', she sees the process, from concept to the flyer design and the results it inspires, as something of a work of art in itself.
