April 7, 2006

1:42 PM

"To all our sisters who have committed suicide or who have been institutionalized for their rebellion."
Throughout her career, but especially in her latest and most wrenching work— Sisters, Saints, & Sibyls, the 39-minute three-screen lamentation that is a duel memoir of her sister's suicide at the age of 19 and her own mortifications of the flesh and battles with addiction—the photographer Nan Goldin has been one of the great living suicides of recent art history... Charles Baxter wrote that novelist Malcolm Lowry captured "the way things radiate just before they turn to ash." At her best Goldin does this too.
posted by matteo (10 comments total)

Goldin's hands (.pdf)
posted by matteo at 1:43 PM on April 7, 2006

This is interesting. I do, however, wish that more pretentious people would off themselves.
posted by Mayor Curley at 1:54 PM on April 7, 2006

Nice article.
posted by klangklangston at 2:48 PM on April 7, 2006

Thanks matteo.
posted by bardic at 2:51 PM on April 7, 2006

what raw and brutal honesty it would take to document one's life in this fashion...thank you, matteo, for introducing me to such an artist.
posted by ms.jones at 3:28 PM on April 7, 2006

.
posted by annieb at 3:55 PM on April 7, 2006

what raw and brutal honesty it would take to document one's life in this fashion...

The really challenging part is finding the fortitude necessary to exploit the death of a loved one for attention and career advancement. I do not share the rougher parts of my life with Ms. Goldin and I expect the same courtesy from her.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:40 PM on April 7, 2006

Goldin's stuff is wonderful...she has real love for every single person she shoots (and she doesn't shoot strangers ever), and it completely shows in the work as well. I'd suggest you go see if an exhibit of her stuff is ever in your town.
posted by amberglow at 6:43 PM on April 7, 2006

..."I used to think I couldn't lose anyone if I photographed them enough. I used photography to stave off loss. But with the recent deaths of many of my friends I realized the limits of what can be preserved." ...
posted by amberglow at 7:12 PM on April 7, 2006

How exactly does mateo manage to get all his posts to reappear, over and over again, in my RSS tray, when this doesn't happen with any other mefi posts?

Inquiring minds want to know.
posted by re6smith at 12:04 PM on April 8, 2006