City self, Country self
2000
35mm film, 1000 original Epinal posters
Video: 3min. 58sec. (loop)
City Self/Country Self could be the title of a fable. Rodney Graham's video shows a dandy gleefully kicking the behind of another man who is endlessly putting his hat back on. The scene refers to an Épinal print telling the story of a peasant arriving in Paris.
Graham plays with Hollywood conventions here: the initially funny situation becomes an interminable nightmare. His work echoes Sigmund Freud's concept of “disturbing strangeness”, when intimacy emerges like a stranger to the point of being frightening. Graham plays both characters, depicting his inner struggle in a slapstick version of the myth of Sisyphus.
City Self/Country Self was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2008 “Passage du Temps” (“Passage of Time”) show at the Tri Postal in Lille.
Graham plays with Hollywood conventions here: the initially funny situation becomes an interminable nightmare. His work echoes Sigmund Freud's concept of “disturbing strangeness”, when intimacy emerges like a stranger to the point of being frightening. Graham plays both characters, depicting his inner struggle in a slapstick version of the myth of Sisyphus.
City Self/Country Self was presented for the first time by the Pinault Collection during the 2008 “Passage du Temps” (“Passage of Time”) show at the Tri Postal in Lille.
Exhibitions
Courtesy the Artist and the Lisson Gallery, London
Courtesy the Artist and the Lisson Gallery, London
Courtesy the Artist and the Lisson Gallery, London
Courtesy the Artist and the Lisson Gallery, London
Courtesy the Artist and the Lisson Gallery, London