1972
_Born Stamford, Connecticut
Lives in New York
Little
David,
1999
Digital
video (color, sound), 3'55''
Courtesy of the artist
view a sequence 410 KB
You're Gonna Be My Woman, 1997-2000
Digital
video (color, sound), 4'25''
Courtesy of the artist
view a sequence 3100 KB
Sari Tervaniemi*
Underneath the macabre horror film and heavy-metal surface of
Piene’s videos lies the social
awareness of art and Piene’s conviction that art can make a change
for the better. For her, it is
essential that her works are based on a reality of which she has firsthand
knowledge. This is why she started to correspond with a prisoner to whom
staying alive under the extreme conditions of a prison is daily life,
instead of using for example films as background material on prisons.
The Little David video takes place in the evening. A little boy is shadowboxing
on the grass,
threatening to beat up his opponent. The boy is restless, his aggressiveness
now serious, now
comical. You laugh at the comical and immediately feel a pang of doubt;
is the boy really deranged or is he just fooling around? Piene highlights
the dark side of innocence which is cruelty. Or is the boy going through
a phase where violence is his guide from innocence to power? (..)
Chloe Piene is interested in extreme forms of power and survival. In You’re
Gonna Be My Woman a bestial woman is cornered but not defeated by the
video camera which takes the role of a surveillance camera, representing
power which the woman furiously challenges with her behaviour. She will
not accept the camera’s or viewers’ power over her, and her
instincts drive her to intimidate, a direct and basic form of using power.
The woman lashes out at her inferior.
* Curator, Helsinki City Art Museum
Please also
visit the archive of Basis-Wien at
http://www.basis-wien.at
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