Marianna Simnett

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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]

Contents

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. [2] [5]

Themes

Simnett's work examines the perception and imagination of the (human) body. [2] [6] Throughout her body of work, and within individual works, there is a nonlinear narrative of "bodily dread" relating to issues of vulnerability, autonomy, and control. [7] Frequent themes include sickness and the intervention of medicine, violation, sexuality, identity, and metamorphosis. [6] [7] Simnett intends the discomfort and pain depicted on the screen to illustrate "the impossible gulf between my pain and someone else's pain" and embody the themes of empathy, trauma and catharsis. [8]

Recurring motifs

Botox figured in Blood In My Milk, The Needle and the Larynx, and Worst Gift. A recurring character Isabel, played by Isabel Maclaren, appears in The Udder and Blood. [8] [9] Syncope, or fainting, features prominently in Simnett's work, being central in Faint and Faint With Light. [1] [7]

Practice

Simnett works with people who have not trained as actors, such as children, farmers, doctors and scientists. [7] She make extensive use of abrupt transitions from one sequence to another and offers a fragmented representation of multi-faceted reality. [3] She often 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, a reprise of The Needle and The Larynx. [7]

Influences

Her practice has been influenced by Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman. [10] Simnett credits Bruce Nauman with getting her into moving-image work, and cites Derek Jarman as a "huge influence". [11] Simnett has affinity to Mika Rottenberg. [9]

Collaborations

In March 2020 Simnett founded the digital art space Home Cooking alongside Asad Raza. [12]

Works

Exhibitions

Simnett has had solo exhibitions at galleries including Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, [18] Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, [19] Kunsthalle Zürich, [14] Museum für Moderne Kunst, [20] and New Museum, New York. She has had group exhibitions at the Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai, and Serpentine Gallery in London. [10]

Awards

In 2014 she won the Jerwood Foundation's Jerwood/FVU Awards. [2] Jerwood commissioned The Udder (2014) and Blood (2015). [21]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "StudioVisit".
  2. 1 2 3 4 "2019: The Year According to Marianna Simnett". walkerart.org. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Marianna Simnett's videos explore fears and phobias surrounding the human body". www.itsnicethat.com. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  4. ↑ "Visiting Practitioners Series: Marianna Simnett - CRiSAP". Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP). 20 February 2018.
  5. ↑ Collection, Zabludowicz. "MARIANNA SIMNETT - Exhibitions". Zabludowicz Collection. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Steer, Emily (17 June 2019). "Marianna Simnett: Blood & Milk". ELEPHANT. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "When Body Horror Meets Fairy Tale: The Films of Marianna Simnett |". Flash Art. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  8. 1 2 "Mira Dayal on Marianna Simnett's Blood In My Milk, 2018". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Indrisek, Scott (8 October 2018). "Marianna Simnett's Brilliantly Grotesque Videos Are Not for the Faint of Heart". Artsy. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  10. 1 2 3 Eastham, Ben. "In Focus: Marianna Simnett". Frieze. No. 176. ISSN   0962-0672 . Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  11. ↑ "Marianna Simnett - shortlisted artist profile - Film London Jarman Award 2017". 23 August 2017.
  12. ↑ "Home Cooking: founded by Asad Raza in collaboration with Marianna Simnett |". Flash Art. 16 April 2020.
  13. 1 2 3 "Marianna Simnett talks about her films". atractivoquenobello. 20 August 2015. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  14. 1 2 "Marianna Simnett | Kunsthalle Zürich". kunsthallezurich.ch. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  15. ↑ "Film and Video Umbrella - The Bird Game". www.fvu.co.uk.
  16. 1 2 "Unprecedented Times". www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at.
  17. ↑ "Marianna Simnett: 'Pillow' - 4:3". fourthree.boilerroom.tv. Archived from the original on 13 November 2020.
  18. ↑ Brisbane, Institute of Modern Art. "Marianna Simnett". Institute of Modern Art.
  19. ↑ "Marianna Simnett – My Broken Animal". Frans Hals Museum.
  20. ↑ "MARIANNA SIMNETT". www.mmk.art.
  21. ↑ "Jerwood/FVU Awards | Marianna Simnett". www.jerwoodfvuawards.com. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
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