This video of Pippi Lotti Rist's version of 'Wicked Game' I chose as it is haunting and violent and the screaming in pain is something that we all feel like sometimes...
Pippi Lotti Rist (1996/7) Ever is Over All (Wicked Game)
Pippi Lotti Rist's work excited me since I lay on the floor in the Hayward and was engulfed in a sensual, feminine and mildly erotic video that filled the ceiling. Jessica Lack writes of Rist that her work is; 'Hilarious and anarchic, Rist's art swings erratically from eroticism to violence, fantasy to fear, constantly pushing the limits of what is possible.' (Lack, 2008) I also felt this with her work, when looking into videos that are of eyes in a handbag or selfless in a Bath of Lava (1994) I am excited that these things have been brought into existence. While I have been pondering the making of my own work 'silent scream' which is my reaction to the inauguration of Trump, I think about the violence in my heart as I can see that these disturbing events are painful for the world and my scream will be silent because pain often is writhing within. In Wicked Game, Rist lets it all out, and Art Forum suggests that; '[the work] suggests an ambivalence about using sex or violence to satisfy our need for communion: As the Isaak song says, maybe we “don’t want to fall in love,” and the destruction of property, while an expression of agency and refusal, is here neither communal nor strategic.' (Ryan, 2017) This idea that it is not communal and there is no strategy, wanton destruction is more like a need, an expression and that is what I am really aiming for in my own work. I need to do something, it may have no effect on anything but it will be satisfying.
Another crucial reason for discussing the work of Rist is that is essentially, unashamedly feminine. The works are all woman; 'Ever Is Over All’s slow-mo car-smashing is paired with images of large, dewy flowers, suggesting innocence and serving as emblems of femininity. That’s the Pipilotti Rist artistic universe, right there: transgression doesn’t exist, or is suspended. The law of this land is feminine, and it is non-judgmental.' (Davis, 2016) It Rist's world and it is always a pleasure to visit. All her work is Performance and Rist was strongly influenced by the work of Yoko Ono in her early days Not all her work is praised and her piece 'Blood Clip' which 'featured copious flows of menstrual blood (simulated) [...] made some viewers think that she was taking feminism too far"' (The Art Story, 2008) Rist is not the first Performance artist to use menstrual blood, Carolee Schneemann made paintings with her menstrual blood, it is funny how the male-dominated art world still finds menstrual blood still a bit icky. I suspect that menstrual blood, which is pure woman, can seem to them hostile and offensive. Yet men can use their own blood, consider Marc Quinn's Blood Head (Self, 2006) people found it fascinating, and shocking but he was still revered.
Pippi Lotti Rist is an artist who is brave, bold, entirely singular and I am hoping to continue to enjoy her work, and be moved by her spirit when creating my own work.
References
Davis, B. (2016). Pipilotti Rist’s New Museum Show is Absolutely Shameless | Artnet News. [online] Artnet News. Available at: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/pipilotti-rist-pixel-forest-new-museum-722027 [Accessed 7 Feb. 2025].
Lack, J. (2008). Artist of the Week No 3: Pipilotti Rist. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008/aug/20/art [Accessed 7 Feb. 2025].
Ryan, T.R. (2017). Pipilotti Rist. [online] Artforum. Available at: https://www.artforum.com/events/pipilotti-rist-16-226924/ [Accessed 7 Feb. 2025].
The Art Story (2008). Pipilotti Rist Paintings, Bio, Ideas. [online] The Art Story. Available at: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/rist-pipilotti/.
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