Vivienne Dick is showing various photographs and films at the Institute of Irish Culture in Paris. Her recent film 'Excluded by the Nature of Things' focusses on the magical Irish countryside, with sound of wind, insects, plant life, reveling in the senses and celebrating the dance of nature.
And yet this show, at the same time, reveals the paradoxes: how the outcast can fall out from this dance. Many of her films are also about dysfunction or seclusion. Dick began working in New York in the 70s. She filmed and photographed individuals, many who are talking intimately with the camera, yet many with a sort of absence and disengagement. One woman is hammering a nail into her head. Another holds a microphone between her thighs in an aimlessly, seemingly bored but provocative gesture, another is listening to music and smoking seductively.
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| Photographs from films made by Vivienne Dick |
Contemporaries of Vivienne Dick are Nan Goldin and Lydia Lunch. These artists have used art to develop objectivity in life. Nan Goldin, from photographing her boyfriend and her, noticed how she behaved in the same way with him after sex, like a ritual. It was from art, that she could rescue herself from unhealthy relationship patterns.
Lydia Lunch turned her difficult experiences into stories and songs and her creativity helped her find the strength not only to rise up but by giving a voice to them, she gives courage to others.
Through their art, they bare the wounds of their subjects and show the wounds from intimacy and yet at the same time their art heals these wounds and develops intimacy. This is the paradox to the work and what makes the exhibition so interesting and captivating.
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