Critical Writing Index

Pipilotti Rist

by Catherine Elwes

Moving Image Review & Art Journal (MIRAJ), 2012, v. 1, no. 2, pp. 270-276

This is a review of the Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist's exhibition "Be My Friend," at Hayward Gallery in 2012. Catherine Elwes compares Rist's works with that of other artists, such as Sarah Pucill, Shirin Neshat, and Carolee Schneemann, to criticize a lack of female agency in her work, and her exploitative aestheticizing of young women's bodies. Elwes also uses theories of "kitsch" by Clement Greenberg and Susan Sontag to analyze the uncritical indulgence of kitsch by Rist. Eventually, Elwes acknowledges that Rist's Suburb Brain still retains the disturbing psychosis in her early work.

ITEM 2012.135 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Be my friendPipilotti Rist

Ever is Over AllPipilotti Rist

CarefreeMark Sandrich

Administrating EternityPipilotti Rist

Lobe of the LungPipilotti Rist

BackcombSarah Pucill

The WhirlpoolJayne Parker

TurbulentShirin Neshat

Yoghurt on Skin - Velvet on TVJack Smith

WomanhouseDerek Jarman

MutaflorPipilotti Rist

Corps EtrangerTony Oursler

Suburb BrainPipilotti Rist

Mona Hatoum

Hannah Wilke

Carolee Schneemann

Pipilotti Rist