The ballad of sexual addiction

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The ballad of sexual addiction
Nan Goldin , 1986

Link to the picture
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The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (AKA The Ballad of Sexual Dependency ) is the most famous artworks of the American photographer Nan Goldin . The work of art was originally a music slide show of over 800 photographs from the artist's social environment. The work of art has been shown at irregular intervals since 1979, with some of the images constantly changing. In 1986, however, the pictures were also published in book form. Well-known individual photographs include Nan and Brian in Bed, New York City 1983 and Nan after being battered, 1983.

History of origin

The majority of the pictures were taken between 1978 and 1986, initially as private snapshots of friends and acquaintances of the artist from the transvestite milieu of New York. The title is taken from Brecht's Threepenny Opera and the photos are supposed to be a kind of diary of the artist's tribe . The pictures originally portrayed a struggle for intimacy and recognition, and later also against the AIDS epidemic and the gay, lesbian and transvestite scene in New York.

Performances

Initially, the photos were shown as a slide show, sometimes in front of the people depicted. In 1979 the work of art was first shown publicly as such at the Mud Club in New York. Further performances took place in 1984 in the Moderna Museet , Stockholm, in 1986 at the Berlin Film Festival and in 1991 in the Museum of Modern Art , New York.

The artist book

In 1986, Nan Goldin published her Ballad of Sexual Dependency in book form. For this purpose, she selected 125 of the more than 800 photographs that comprise the ballad and put them into groups in a fixed order. These groups deal with the role of women, men and, above all, the difficulties of sexual relationships. The plot of the Ballad of Sexual Dependency in the artist's book is framed by the love story of Nan Goldin and her partner Brian, with whom she was together for about 3 years. The book was sold in large numbers at a low price in order to make it accessible to a broad mass and to fit into the mass culture.

criticism

Nan Goldin was accused of generating a “heroin chic” with her pictures and of having a voyeuristic attitude towards her subject . Nan Goldin does not see himself as a voyeur, but claims that the pictures are to be equated with family pictures: The common view is that the photographer is by nature a voyeur, the last one invited to a party. But I am invited: this is my celebration. This is my family, my story .

Quote

“At the beginning of my work there was the realization that people who otherwise have absolutely nothing in common attract each other on a sexual level. They are not doing each other well, which makes sex even more important. It is like an addiction to sleep together, which leads to all sorts of disasters. But people choose addiction because they feel good about it. We tend to forget that when we talk about addicts. […] But I have absolutely nothing against this form of attachment […] It is the case with couples that one is always more dependent on the other than the other way around. The origin of the word has a positive connotation: to hang on to someone. But that is not what we mean by dependency as we understand it. The negative connotation arises because we are talking about relationships that are devoid of emotional or emotional ties. "

- Nan Goldin

Literature on the subject

  • Costa, Guido (Ed.): Nan Goldin, Berlin 2001.
  • Goldin, Nan: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, ed. v. Marvin Heiferman and Mark Holborn, New York 1986.
  • Grundberg, Andy: “Nan Goldin's Grim 'Ballad'”, in: Crisis in the Real. Writings on Pho-tography, 1974-1989, New York 1990, pp. 96-99.
  • Kruska, Peter: The subjective view in the photographs of the "Boston School". David Arm-strong, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Nan Goldin, Mark Marrisroe, Jack Pierson, Shellburne Thurber, Marburg 2008.
  • Lange, Barbara: “Soap between book covers: Nan Goldin. The ballad of sexual addiction (1986) “, in: Buch / Medium / Fotografie, ed. v. Sigrid Schade and Anne Thurmann-Jajes, (series for artist publications 1), Cologne 2004, pp. 119–158.
  • Scorzin, Pamela C .: “In oscillation between authenticity and fiction. On the photographic art of Nan Goldin. ”, In: The photographic reality. Staging - Fiction - Narration, ed. v. Lars Blunck, Bielefeld 2010, pp. 129–142.
  • Söll, Änne: “A landscape of suffering. Nan Goldin's Self-Portrait: After Serious Abuse in 1984 ”, in: Photographic Passions, ed. v. Katharina Sykora, Ludger De-renthal and Esther Ruelfs, Marburg 2006, pp. 209–212.
  • Stephen Westphal / Nan Goldin: "The Ballad of Nan Goldin", in: Bomb, No. 37, (Fall 1991), pp. 27-31.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guardian Online: There's no one quite like Nan Goldin (accessed March 1, 2009)
  2. ↑ Nan Goldin, Marvin Heiferman, Mark Holborn, Suzanne Fletcher: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Aperture Foundation, 1986 ISBN 0-89381-236-6
  3. ^ The Museum of fine arts, Huston: Nan Goldin: Stories Retold ( July 7, 2009 memento on the Internet Archive ) (accessed March 3, 2009)
  4. ^ Artforum International, May 1, 1995
  5. ↑ Lindsay James, Artist says that her genius is 'in the narratives' ( Memento from October 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Voices of Pensilvenia, November 5, 2005, page 20, (PDF; 355 kB)
  6. ↑ Nan Goldin - The Devil's Playground , stunned.org
  7. ↑ Associated Content, Nan Goldin Photography: The 'Goldin' Age of Heroin Chic ( October 27, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive ), AC The Peole's Media Company (April 27, 2007)
  8. ↑ There is a popular notion, that the photographer is by nature a voyeur, the last one invited to the party. But I'm not crashing; this is my party. This is my family, my history.
  9. ^ My beloved surrogate family , Zeit Online, p. 2, October 20, 2009 (accessed September 12, 2013)