Marianna Simnett

Marianna Simnett (born 1986) is a Berlin-based[1] multi-disciplinary artist who works with film, installation, drawing, and sculpture.[2] She is best known for her large-scale video installations.[3]

Early life and education

Simnett studied at a musical theatre school as a teenager.[4] She received a BA from Nottingham Trent University in 2007 and an MA from the Slade School of Art in 2013.[5][2]

Themes

Simnett's work examines the perception and imagination of the (human) body.[2][6] In the works she has created to date, the themes of sickness and the intervention of medicine figure large.[6] Themes of contamination, disease, violation, sexuality, identity, and metamorphosis [7] Central to surrealist visions are issues of vulnerability, autonomy, and control.[7] Simnett cites empathy, trauma, catharsis and the embodiment of these as important themes in her practice.[8] Throughout her body of works and the works themselves is a nonlinear narrative of "bodily dread".[7]

Recurring motifs

Botox figured in Blood In My Milk as well as The Needle and the Larynx, 2016, and Worst Gift, 2017. A recurring character, Isabel Maclaren appears as Isabel in The Udder and Blood[8][9] Syncope features prominently as a motif in Simnett's work.[1][7] Fainting is a central motif in Faint which was later expanded upon with Faint With Light.

Practice

Simnett works with non-actors: children, farmers, doctors, scientists.[7] She make extensive use of abrupt transitions from one sequence to another.[3] She offers a fragmented representation of multi-faceted reality.[3] Simnett re-uses footage from early works; Blood In My Milk merges (newly edited) footage from her trilogy (The Udder, Blue Roses and Blood) with Worst Gift (2017), a reprise of The Needle and The Larynx.[7]

Critical commentary

"Her recent work explores female subjectivity and bodily integrity as they relate to the power dynamics of the medical profession".[10] "employed the forensic and macabre to elicit a visceral reaction from viewers" [7] Simnett focuses on the dystopic consequences of technology through a psychosexual lens[7] Simnett's work elicits a physical response though its depiction of physiological processes and techniques such as dreamlike sequences contrasted with hyper-real scenarios[11] and the use of music.[12] Simnett induces the same emotions, such as fear, that she enacts in her work.[1] Her work has been said to combine mythic structures with the aesthetics of medical documentaries.[7] "Simnett composes fanciful narratives, employing leaps of logic while creating intentional slippages among her characters’ identities, genders, and physiognomies".[8] References Donna Haraway and Paul B. Preciado.[8] Simnett's consideration of self-preservation mobilizes feminist concerns without becoming prescriptive.[8]

Influences

Her practice has been influenced by Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman.[12] Simnett credits Bruce Nauman with getting her into moving-image work, and cites Derek Jarman as a "huge influence".[13] Simnett has affinity to Mika Rottenberg.[9]

"Transformation is much more my message than amputation—transformation is through and through my work. Everyone is always becoming something other than themselves.” [9]

Collaborations

In March 2020 Simnett founded Home Cooking alongside Asad Raza (artist). [14]

Works
  • Faint (2012), recalls the story of Simnett's grandfather, who escaped death by firing squad by fainting.[12]
  • Dog (2013)
  • The Udder single channel HD video, 15 minutes, 30 seconds (2014) is the first in a trilogy of works that includes Blue Roses and Blood (both 2015). Shot on a robotic dairy farm,[7] it is a clinical account of bovine mastitis and a cautionary tale about female chastity[7] The Udder (2014) is a coming-of-age story set on a small, rural, roboticized dairy farm.[9]
  • Blue Roses (2015) goes back and forth between a varicose vein operation and the creation of a cyborg cockroach[7][9] Blue Roses’ (2015) premiered summer 2015 at Comar on the Isle of Mull.[11]
  • Blood ( 2015) recalls the history of Emma Eckstein and her treatment by Wilhelm Fliess.[11] It features Lali, an Albanian sworn virgin and references the Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit [11] Blood (2015)is a dreamlike depiction of a nasal surgery that references both a Freudian case study and the Kanun.[9]
  • The Needle and The Larynx (2016) [1] shows the artist receiving botulinum toxin injection in her larynx to lower her voice.[9]
  • Faint with Light (2016) is room-size installation that consists of a series of LED lights synchronized to a soundtrack of the artists hyperventilating until she faints[1] Faint with Light is an audio and light installation,[6] a 12-metre wall of bright LED lights[6] the artist deliberately induces syncope through hyperventilation.[6]
  • Worst Gift (2017), a group of thuggish adolescent boys trapped in a dirty hospital are subjected to endless injections to their vocal chords.[9]
  • Blood In My Milk (2018) is an immersive 73-minute, five-channel video installation,[3] made between 2014 and 2017[15][6] Its characters are surgeons, scientists, children and insects.[6] Blood In My Milk examines fears and (specific) phobias (Blood-injection-injury type phobia).[3]
  • The Bird Game (2019) is a wicked fairy tale in which a loquacious and bloodthirsty crow, voiced by Joanne Whalley, lures six children to a secluded mansion and snares them in a sequence of deranged games. Scored by Oliver Coates, shot on 16mm film by Robbie Ryan (cinematographer), co-written by Marianna Simnett and Charlie Fox.[16]
  • Dance, Stanley, Dance (2020) is a digitally animated watercolour inspired by found roadkill. The soundtrack was composed by Daniel Blumberg. [17]
  • Tito's Dog (2020) was created during the 2020 global lockdowns, and confronts the artists own identity whilst also continuing her investigation into interspecies relationships. [17]
  • Pillow (2020) is a music video for Daniel Blumberg romance shot during lockdown on 16mm, starring found roadkill in Malvern, UK. On a dark country road, a cast of squirrels and birds are struck down one by one by a passing car. Waking from the dead, their broken corpses gather in an erotic congregation beneath the earth. [18]

Exhibitions

Simnett has had solo exhibitions at Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane,[19] Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, [20] Kunsthalle Zürich,[15] Copenhagen Contemporary, Museum für Moderne Kunst,[21] New Museum in New York among others.

She has had group exhibitions at the Ming Contemporary Art Museum Shanghai, Serpentine Gallery in London.[12]

Awards

In 2014 she won the Jerwood Foundation's Jerwood/FVU Awards.[2] Jerwood commissioned The Udder (2014) and Blood (2015).[22]

References
  1. https://studiovisit.io/visit/marianna-simnett/access-date=2020-09-09. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. "2019: The Year According to Marianna Simnett". walkerart.org. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  3. "Marianna Simnett's videos explore fears and phobias surrounding the human body". www.itsnicethat.com. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  4. "Visiting Practitioners Series: Marianna Simnett - CRiSAP". Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP). 2018-02-20.
  5. Collection, Zabludowicz. "MARIANNA SIMNETT - Exhibitions". Zabludowicz Collection. Retrieved 2020-02-15.
  6. Steer, Emily (2019-06-17). "Marianna Simnett: Blood & Milk". ELEPHANT. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  7. "When Body Horror Meets Fairy Tale: The Films of Marianna Simnett |". Flash Art. 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  8. "Mira Dayal on Marianna Simnett's Blood In My Milk, 2018". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  9. Indrisek, Scott (2018-10-08). "Marianna Simnett's Brilliantly Grotesque Videos Are Not for the Faint of Heart". Artsy. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  10. "Hazmat: Charlie Fox and Marianna Simnett •". Mousse Magazine (in Italian). 2017-10-13. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  11. "Marianna Simnett talks about her films". atractivoquenobello. 2015-08-20. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  12. Eastham, Ben. "In Focus: Marianna Simnett". Frieze (176). ISSN 0962-0672. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  13. "Marianna Simnett - shortlisted artist profile - Film London Jarman Award 2017".
  14. "Home Cooking: founded by Asad Raza in collaboration with Marianna Simnett |". Flash Art. April 16, 2020.
  15. "Marianna Simnett | Kunsthalle Zürich". kunsthallezurich.ch. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
  16. "Film and Video Umbrella - The Bird Game". www.fvu.co.uk.
  17. "Unprecedented Times". www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at.
  18. https://fourthree.boilerroom.tv/film/marianna-simnett-pillow
  19. Brisbane, Institute of Modern Art. "Marianna Simnett". Institute of Modern Art.
  20. "Marianna Simnett – My Broken Animal". Frans Hals Museum.
  21. "MARIANNA SIMNETT". www.mmk.art.
  22. "Jerwood/FVU Awards | Marianna Simnett". www.jerwoodfvuawards.com. Retrieved 2020-02-14.
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