Reborn

2010 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

11:00 minutes

Desiree Holman

location: Oakland, California
gender: female
nationality: American

Reborn, 2010 is a three-channel video by Desiree Holman that questions ideas of motherhood and the maternal instinct. The video features a group of women as they tenderly cradle lifelike baby dolls atop their rocking chairs. Although at first, the video might appear as a celebration of the maternal bond, the scene soon becomes eerie and unsettling as we see milk spilling out of the mothers’ mouths. Subsequently, the tone changes dramatically as a group of women in their underwear wearing colorful, bedazzled niqabs, perform an upbeat choreography with the dolls strapped around their bodies. The work is based on Holman’s research into the curious subculture of ‘reborners,’ a group of women known for hand-making, collecting and caring for hyper-realistic baby dolls called ‘reborns.’ Grounded in fantasy, the vernacular surrounding these dolls often addresses them as living. Fascinated by this, the dolls we see in Hollman’s video were created by the artist in a process that lasted over a year, which involved rooting each individual hair and painstakingly modeling their skin tones. Reborn is emblematic of Holman’s practice, which, through an anthropologic eye, aims at finding the fissures in established cultural tropes. As per other works by the artist , Reborn disrupts idyllic representations and conventions to bring to the fore the darker, strange and unsettling undertones of human nature.


Combining research, performance, video, digital manipulation, drawing, and installation, Desiree Holman’s multifaceted practice dissects the discourses that structure our shared experience of the social world: from ideas of gender and sexuality to notions of race and motherhood among many others. Originally trained as a sculptor, the Oakland-based artist places emphasis on objects due to their potential as repositories of meaning. With the help of performers, she then puts these objects to use as costumes or props in performances that the artist describes as “identity play-focused work.” Although Holman generally presents the performances as multi-channel videos, her oeuvre also incorporates traditional gallery works such as drawings and paintings, which a related to the videos on display. The source material informing her work is often based in her real-world research, pulling apart and interrogating social constructs she finds in popular culture and subcultures, in order to excavate social myths and illustrate the complexity of human psyche.


Colors:



Related works featuring themes of: » Contemporary Surrealistic, » Drawing, » Figurative Sculpture, » Film/Video, » Humor, » American  
» see more

Drag
© » KADIST

Xiaoyun Chen

2006

In the video work Drag, a man in a dark room pulls on the end of a rope...

Hako
© » KADIST

Hiraki Sawa

2006

Hako (2006) depicts a mysterious and dystopic landscape where the world becomes flat: distance between different spaces, depth of field and three-dimensional perceptions are canceled...

VFGY9
© » KADIST

Larry Bell

1979

Like many of Larry Bell’s works, VFGY9 deals primarily with the viewer’s experience of sight...

Untitled (Grate I/II: Shan Mei Playground/ Grand Fortune Mansion)
© » KADIST

Adrian Wong

2012

Untitled (Grate I/II: Shan Mei Playground/ Grand Fortune Mansion) is part of a series drawn from architectural objects that mark the boundary of public and private spaces Wong encountered while strolling in Hong Kong...

Other related works, blended automatically  
» see more

Drag
© » KADIST

Xiaoyun Chen

2006

In the video work Drag, a man in a dark room pulls on the end of a rope...

Hako
© » KADIST

Hiraki Sawa

2006

Hako (2006) depicts a mysterious and dystopic landscape where the world becomes flat: distance between different spaces, depth of field and three-dimensional perceptions are canceled...

One Universe, One God, One Nation
© » KADIST

Yin-Ju Chen

One Universe, One God, One Nation was inspired by Hannah Arendt’s analysis of space exploration and by the astrological horoscope of Chinese political and military leader Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975)...

Nothing New
© » KADIST

Oded Hirsch

2012

Oded Hirsch’s video work Nothing New (2012) utilizes seemingly absurdist tropes to raise more trenchant questions about communal action and collective identity in modern day Israel...

Related works sharing similar palette  
» see more

Haunting Underwater Photos Show How Climate Change Impacts the South Pacific [Interview]
© » MODERN MET PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographer Nick Brandt Discusses His Latest Underwater Series Home / Photography / Underwater Photography Haunting Underwater Photos Show How Climate Change Impacts the South Pacific [Interview] By Jessica Stewart on December 1, 2023 Serafina and Keanan on a Bed For the third chapter of Nick Brandt ‘s long-term project addressing climate change, the photographer traveled to the South Pacific to address the urgent issues surrounding rising sea levels...

sommaire du n°515 – novembre 2023
© » ARTPRESS

sommaire du n°515 - novembre 2023 - artpress X 23 octobre 2023 Dans AP Print , artpress , artpress mensuel , sommaires sommaire du n°515 – novembre 2023 > COMMANDER LE NUMÉRO Vous êtes abonné(e) ? Retrouvez les offres de notre club pour novembre par ici ! Édito 5 Faire histoire Making History Étienne Hatt INTRODUCING 6 Frederik Exner Laurent Quénéhen Chroniques / Columns 11 Dépression verte Green Depression Paul Ardenne 15 L’image en creux Implicit Image Étienne Hatt 19 Gilles Aillaud, animal peinture Gilles Aillaud, Animal Painting Anne Bertrand Point de vue / Opinion 22 Picasso, où est le problème ? Picasso, What’s the Problem ? Frédérique Joseph-Lowery ACTUALITÉS / SPOTLIGHTS 26 Les 10 ans de la Bourse Révélations 10 Years of the Révélations Emerige Grant Interview de Gaël Charbau par Étienne Hatt 30 Les Douches la Galerie, concentré de photographie Les Douches la Galerie, a Photographic Concentrate Aurélie Cavanna DOSSIERS 34 GRANDE INTERVIEW Dana Schutz, une peinture métaphorique Dana Schutz, A Metaphorical Painting Interview par Eleanor Heartney 42 MATÉRIALITÉS PHOTOGRAPHIQUES PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIALITIES 44 L’image entre présence et absence Images between Presence and Absence Interview d’Héloïse Conésa par Étienne Hatt 49 Regard transatlantique, d’hier à aujourd’hui A Transatlantic Perspective, Then and Now Marie Auger 54 Gilles Aillaud en héritage The Legacy of Gilles Aillaud Annabelle Gugnon 62 ROTHKO VU D’EUROPE ROTHKO SEEN FROM EUROPE 64 Mark Rothko, Psaume Mark Rothko, Psalm Philippe Sollers 66 Rothko-Hartung, affinités électives Rothko-Hartung, Elective Affinities Interview de Thomas Schlesser par Julie Chaizemartin 71 expositions / reviews Triennale Art & Industrie Bernard Moninot Fashion folklore Baptiste Roux Corps à corps Un-Tuning Together Jonathan Meese Sasha Ferré Armelle de Sainte Marie Un pli du bord du monde 82 agenda 85 livres Yuk Hui, reconstruire une pensée de la technique Pascal Quignard, heures heureuses, où êtes-vous ? Clément Ghys, la contreculture est une bombe à retardement Sarah Chiche, l’œuvre au bleu (de Prusse) Enrique Vila-Matas, la biographie d’un style Stefano D’Arrigo, mythologie de la langue Liliane Giraudon, traversée par l’écriture Jean-Luc Giribone, la sagesse dans une âme et un corps Antoinette Deshoulières, liberté baroque 96 Comptes rendus 98 Le feuilleton de Jacques Henric Albert Ayler À venir, artpress n°516, décembre 2023 Interview Jérôme Zonder Les 50 ans de la galerie Baronian Les formes de la ruine au musée des beaux-arts de Lyon Victor Burgin au Jeu de Paume et au CPIF… Couv...

Precious Okoyomon’s latest artwork was edited by nature
© » I-D VICE ART

Precious Okoyomon’s latest artwork was edited by nature advertisement...

Louie Cordero’s Riveting Acrylic Paintings
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE

In Louie Cordero’s surreal and riveting paintings, the artist’s command of texture and mood sets his work apart...

Related works from the » 2010's created around » Oakland, California  
» see more

Silencer #16 & #17
© » KADIST

Will Rogan

2010

MUM , the acronym used to title a series of Rogan’s small interventions on found magazines, stands for “Magic Unity Might,” the name of a vintage trade magic publication...

Serengeti Green
© » KADIST

Phillip Maisel

2015

While his works can function as abstract, they are very much rooted in physicality and the possibilities that are inherent in the materials themselves...

Eraser
© » KADIST

Will Rogan

2014

Will Rogan’s video Eraser (2014) shows a hearse parked in a clearing amidst leaf barren trees...

There are veins in these lands, I
© » KADIST

Rodney McMillian

2013

In his evocative Landscape Paintings, McMillian uses second-hand bedsheets, sourced from thrift shops, as his starting point...

Related artist(s) to: Desiree Holman » Amy Franceschini, » Andrea Higgins, » Chris Johanson, » Colter Jacobsen, » John Bankston, » Jordan Kantor, » Josephine Taylor, » Kamau Amu Patton, » Kota Ezawa, » Leslie Shows  
» see more

Human Quarry
© » KADIST

Leslie Shows

Human Quarry is a large work on paper by Leslie Shows made of a combination of acrylic paint and collage...

Eclipse
© » KADIST

Jordan Kantor

2009

Eclipse is a series of screenprints from Jordan Kantor’s larger vitrine installation that included reworkings of a single image of a small group viewing an eclipse through shielding cut-outs...

Untitled (Untitled Passport II)
© » KADIST

Colter Jacobsen

2010

The title Untitled Passport II was first used by Felix Gonzalez-Torres in an unlimited edition of small booklets, each containing sequenced photographs of a soaring bird against an open sky...

Apartment on Cardboard
© » KADIST

Chris Johanson

2000

Apartment on Cardboard (2000) is an exterior view of an abstracted apartment building...

Related works found in the same semantic group  
» see more

Collector Qiao Zhibing's Tank Shanghai Museum Opens on West Bund Waterfront - via The Art Newspaper
© » LARRY'S LIST

The reborn oil tanks host shows by teamLab, Adrián Villar Rojas and assorted Chinese artists...

Tomorrow
© » KADIST

Jung Yoonsuk

2020

Tomorrow by Jung Yoonsuk is a two-channel video installation, observing the two different sites of factories, one in the mannequin reform factory in Seoul, Korea, and the other in a sex doll factory in Shenzhen, China...

Tarahi V
© » KADIST

Haris Epaminonda

2007

Created from extracts of kitsch movies or Greek soap operas from the 1960s, these videos are like audiovisual ‘postcards’ reflecting a nostalgic and melancholic approach...

Life
© » KADIST

Yu Honglei

2013

Yu Honglei’s video and mixed media works riff on familiar motifs from the Western art historical canon and reimagine them through a playful but subversive culture jamming of their original meaning...