Donegan's work takes place on the interface between performance, video and drawing, painting and installations. In her work she ironically integrates time-bound gestures from her performances with timeless understanding from the art of painting. Also true of the image she creates in 'Lieder': against a clear blue background we see the naked upper part of a body; the head is wrapped in black plastic. Two plastic laundry detergent bottles, one yellow and one red are attached to the head as part of the 'wrapping'. The blind head now has eyes on a stick and this transforms the body into the body of something or someone else: a cyborg, an insect? The 'eyes' produce a milklike substance as if they are breasts and a another woman wipes it off the head and the body. This silent scene is followed by a different image: against a yellow background the body of a woman wrapped in black plastic is visible, but this time without the 'horns'. With her pregnant, wrapped body she revolves on a squeaking stool, turning mechanically again and again. We see first one then the other body and watch while clumps of paint are thrown at the two women, who seemingly remain stoical during the bombardment. The black of the plastic, as a non-colour in an environment of for the rest (mostly) primary colours disappears somewhat from the screen. The video ends as one of the women tries to free herself from the wrapping. The wrapped heads have become anonymous bodies and as transformed bodiless bodies they become the canvas upon which the painting is created. Although they thus become carriers for thoughts which are given form with paint, they still contribute to the whole. In her search for the relationship between artist, model and canvas, Donegan again plays a game with these three elements as opposites that are part of the creative process: clean and dirty, seeing and blindness, fullness and emptiness, chance and effort.
– Carla Hoekendijk |
Assistant: Allison Sall
Cheryl Donegan, 1972, New Haven (USA)
Lives and works in New York (USA)
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