In the video The Syphilis of Sisyphus (2011), Reid Kelley transported her heroine to the French demimonde. The film centers on a pregnant Parisian prostitute who exemplifies Baudelaire’s paean to the superiority of cosmetic over natural beauty. With sets that shift between Sisyphus’s boudoir and the streets of Paris, the work is an antic romp through Revolutionary and post Revolutionary France, with brief vignettes involving everyone from Diderot, Marie Antoinette, and Marat to Robespierre, Napoleon, and Haussmann. In a commentary on the fate of overly aggressive women, it ends with our rebellious heroine carted off to Charcot’s sanatorium.
Drawing from literature, plays, and historical events, Mary Reid Kelley makes rambunctious videos that explore the condition of women throughout history. They sardonically critique the view that recent social progress has resolved the unequal standing of women in society. Her work often involves intensive research and critical re-assessments of archetypal historical narratives—scholarship delivered as highly structured poetic verse, which serves as dialogue filled with contemporary cultural references. Her characters leap promiscuously through history and mythology, emphasizing moments of flux in gender roles and social structures. Working with videographer Patrick Kelley, Reid Kelley’s characters are usually all performed by her, disguised in elaborate costuming and makeup. They traverse animated and live-action landscapes created from the artist’s drawings and paintings. Initially trained as a painter, Reid Kelley’s stylized black-and-white visuals recall the crude aesthetics of early animation and the lo-tech look of amateur film. Teamed with her lexically complex scripts rife with historical references and wordplay, Reid Kelley’s works gesture to the instability of language and its role in history.
This photograph of Martin Creed himself was used as the invitation card for a fundraising auction of works on paper at Christie’s South Kensington in support of Camden Arts Centre’s first year in a refurbished building in 2005...
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (24–30 Dec 2018) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do December 24, 2018 Tales of Apocalypse Exhibition by Latif Maulan , at Galeri Titikmerah, 22–31 Dec An exhibition of recent artworks by contemporary self-taught artist Latif Maulan, in the artist-run space Galeri Titikmerah in Publika...
Central Region by Tanatchai Bandasak is a meditation on materiality and time-based media centres on the mysterious, prehistoric ‘standing stones’ of Hintang in Northern Laos: little-studied megaliths which have survived thousands of years of political change and the cataclysmic carpet-bombing of Laos by the United States during the Cold War...
Sleeping Polar Bear Snuggling on Iceberg Wins Photo Award Skip to content "Ice Bed" (2023), digital photo (© Nima Sarikhani, Wildlife Photographer of the Year; all images courtesy the artist and Natural History Museum, London) In an era of immeasurable chaos caused by unsustainable human activity across the planet, it’s crucial to look within the natural world for order, hope, and to feel grounded as things spiral around us...
In the video work Any Resemblance is Coincidental , CHEN Zhexiang mined portraits of real Asian criminals that were abandoned on the Internet...
After the decade-long conflict (1996-2006) that ended with Nepal becoming a Federal Democratic Republic, political unrest and weak governance continued to mark the country’s future as daily life repeatedly witnessed ruptures...
The three cut-outs are made of three aerial photographs coming from the archives of the Ecuadorian Military Geographic Institute...
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (1 - 7 April 2019) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do April 1, 2019 Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali and Jakarta from 1-7 April 2019 Every year, on the 21st of April, Indonesia celebrates the life of one of her women’s emancipation figures, Kartini...
The five works included in the Kadist Collection are representative of Pettibon’s complex drawings which are much more narrative than comics or cartoon...
Gildas Le Reste — & Guests — Catherine Putman Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris Login Newsletter Twitter Facebook Gildas Le Reste — & Guests — Catherine Putman Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris English Français Home Events Artists Venues Magazine Videos Back Previous Next Gildas Le Reste — & Guests Exhibition Drawing, print, painting Gildas Le Reste, Notes de voyage #1, 2023 Ink on paper mounted on canvas Gildas Le Reste & Guests Ends in 27 days: January 27 → March 9, 2024 Galerie Catherine Putman has pleasure in making a double invitation to Gildas Le Reste as both artist and exhibition curator...
Mario Garcia Torres imagines cinematic devices to replay stories occasionally forgotten by Conceptual art...
Archaeologists Find Evidence of Hallucinogenic Drug in Ancient Rome Skip to content A bust of Emperor Trajan surrounded by black henbane seends and flowers and a femur discovered by archaeologists (edit Valentina Di Liscia/ Hyperallergic ) Two new archaeological finds suggest Roman subjects at the northern edge of the ancient empire used a hallucinogenic and poisonous plant called black henbane, the effects of which were described by Greek philosopher Plutarch as “not so properly called drunkenness” but rather “alienation of mind or madness.” Dutch zooarchaeologists Maaike Groot and Martijn van Haasteren and archaeobotanist Laura I...
5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This December | Artsy Skip to Main Content Advertisement Art 5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This December Maxwell Rabb Dec 15, 2023 2:00PM Andrea Respino Infastidite Acque #5 , 2023 Rolando Anselmi Price on request Adam Baker Sea snail , 2023 Schlomer Haus Gallery Sold In this monthly roundup, we shine the spotlight on five stellar exhibitions taking place at small and rising galleries worldwide...