Pipilotti Rist

Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Rist at Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona
Portrait image of Pipilotti Rist
Born
Elisabeth Rist

(1962-06-21) 21 June 1962 (age 62)[1]
Grabs, Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland
NationalitySwiss
EducationInstitute of Applied Arts, Schule für Gestaltung
Known forVideo art
Notable workPepperminta, I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much, Pickelporno, Ever is Over All
AwardsJoan Miró Prize (2009)
Websitepipilottirist.net
Monochrome Rose, Pink tramway in Geneva, public art by Pipilotti Rist[2]
Line 71-17 detail of interior

Pipilotti Elisabeth Rist (born 21 June 1962) is a Swiss visual artist best known for creating experimental video art and installation art.[3] Her work is often described as surreal, intimate, abstract art, having a preoccupation with the female body. Her artwork is often categorized as feminist art.

Rist's work is known for its multi-sensory qualities, with overlapping projected imagery that is highly saturated with color, paired with sound components that are part of a larger environment with spaces for viewers to rest or lounge. Rist's work often transforms the architecture or environment of a white cube gallery into a more tactile, auditory and visual experience.[4]

Early life and education

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Pipilotti Rist was born Elisabeth Charlotte Rist[5] in Grabs, Switzerland, in the Rhine Valley.[6] Her father was a doctor and her mother a teacher.[7] She started going by "Pipilotti", a combination of her childhood nickname "Lotti" and her childhood hero, Astrid Lindgren's character Pippi Longstocking, in 1982.[8] Prior to studying art and film, Rist studied theoretical physics in Vienna for one semester.[9]

From 1982 to 1986 Rist studied commercial art, illustration, and photography at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in Vienna.[10] She later studied video at the Basel School of Design, Switzerland. From 1988 through 1994, she was member of the music band and performance group Les Reines Prochaines.[11] In 1997, her work was first featured in the Venice Biennial, where she was awarded the Premio 2000 Prize.[10] From 2002 to 2003, she was invited by Professor Paul McCarthy to teach at UCLA as a visiting faculty member. From summer 2012 through to summer 2013, Rist spent a sabbatical in Somerset.[12]

Artwork

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During her studies, Rist began making super 8 films.[10] Her works generally last only a few minutes, borrowing from mass-media formats such as MTV and advertising,[13] with alterations in their colors, speed, and sound.[14] Her works generally treat issues related to gender, sexuality, and the human body.[15]

Her colorful and musical works transmit a sense of happiness and simplicity. Rist's work is regarded as feminist by some art critics. Her works are held by many important art collections worldwide.

In I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much (1986)[16] Rist dances in front of a camera in a black dress with uncovered breasts. The images are often monochromatic and fuzzy. Rists repeatedly sings "I'm not the girl who misses much", a reference to the first line of the song "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" by the Beatles. As the video approaches its end, the image becomes increasingly blue and fuzzy and the sound stops.[17]

Rist achieved notoriety with Pickelporno (Pimple porno) (1992),[18] a work about the female body and sexual excitation. The fisheye camera moves over the bodies of a couple. The images are charged by intense colors, and are simultaneously strange, sensual, and ambiguous.[19]

Sip my Ocean (1996)[20] is an audio-video installation projected as a mirrored reflection on two adjoining walls, duplicating the video as sort of Rorschach inkblots. Besides a television and tea-cups other domestic items can be seen sinking slowly under the ocean surface. The video is intercut with dreamlike frames of bodies swimming underwater and other melancholic images such as colourful overlays of roses across the heavens. Slightly abstract and layered the visuals invite the viewer to reveal its depth beneath the surface. Accompanying the video is Rist singing Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game". Her voice is starting of sweetly but becomes gradually out of synchronicity with the song, ending in the shrieking chorus of “No, I don’t wanna fall in love”. Rist breaks the illusion of synchronicity in the video with the asynchrony of the audio and captures the human longing for and impossibility of being totally in tune with somebody else.[10][21]

Ever Is Over All (1997)[22] shows in slow-motion a young woman walking along a city street, smashing the windows of parked cars with a large hammer in the shape of a tropical flower. At one point a police officer greets her.[23] The audio video installation has been purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Rist's nine video segments titled Open My Glade[24] were played once every hour on a screen at Times Square in New York City, a project of the Messages to the Public program, which was founded in 1980.

“I want to see how you see – a portrait of Cornelia Providori”[25] (2003) is an audio-visual work spanning 5:16. The sound was created in collaboration with Andreas Guggisberg, with whom Rist often works with. The main subject is the dialectical tension between macro and micro and how the continents are mirrored on the human body. The technical components are two to four layers of edited images, intricately cut and stacked on top of each other.[26]

Pour Your Body Out[27] was a commissioned multimedia installation organized by Klaus Biesenbach and installed in the atrium of the Museum of Modern Art in early 2009. In an interview with Phong Bui published in The Brooklyn Rail, Rist said she chose the atrium for the installation "because it reminds me of a church's interior where you’re constantly reminded that the spirit is good and the body is bad. This spirit goes up in space but the body remains on the ground. This piece is really about bringing those two differences together."[28]

Her first feature film, Pepperminta, had its world premiere at the 66th Venice International Film Festival in 2009.[29] She summarized the plot as "a young woman and her friends on a quest to find the right color combinations and with these colors they can free other people from fear and make life better.”[30]

When interviewed by The Guardian for a preview of her 2011 exhibition at London's Hayward gallery, Rist described her feminism: "Politically," she says, "I am a feminist, but personally, I am not. For me, the image of a woman in my art does not stand just for women: she stands for all humans. I hope a young guy can take just as much from my art as any woman."[31]

Rist has likened her videos to that of women's handbags, hoping that they'd have “room in them for everything: painting, technology, language, music, lousy flowing pictures, poetry, commotion, premonitions of death, sex, and friendliness."[32]

Other activities

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In 1998, Rist was a finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize administered by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. The jury selected Douglas Gordon as winner.[33][34]

Works (Selection)

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Cable car Monochrome Rose, Geneva, since 2016
Ceiling installation at Le Loft – Nouvel-Tower, Vienna
Video installation Tastende Lichter (Inching Lights), façade of Kunsthaus Zürich

Architectural Art and Public Art

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  • since 1995: Flying Room. Video projection on the ceiling of the UBS entrance hall, Buchs, St. Gallen[35]
  • 2000 and 2017: Open my Glade. Video installation on Times Square, New York[36]
  • since 2001: Ein Blatt im Wind (A Leaf in the Wind). Swiss Embassy Berlin, Germany[37]
  • since 2005: Stadtlounge (City lounge). Square and street design in St. Gallen, cooperation with Carlos Martinez[38]
  • since 2010: Ceiling installation in the restaurant Le Loft on 18th floor of the Sofitel Hotel (Nouvel Tower), Vienna[39]
  • since 2014: Münsteranerin. Permanent video installation in the entrance area of the Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster, Germany[40]
  • since 2016: Monochrome Rose. Streetcar train in pink, Geneva[41]
  • since 2020: Tastende Lichter (Inching lights). Permanent video installation on the façade of Kunsthaus Zürich[42]

Audio and Video art

[edit]
  • 1986: I’m Not The Girl Who Misses Much
  • 1988: Das Zimmer (1994/2000)(Entlastungen) Pipilottis Fehler
  • 1992/1999: Eine Spitze in den Westen – ein Blick in den Osten (bzw. N-S) (A Peek Into The West – A Look Into The East)
  • 1992: Pickelporno
  • 1993: Blutraum (Blood room)
  • 1993: Eindrücke verdauen (Digesting Impressions)
  • 1993: Schminktischlein mit Feedback (Little Make-Up Table With Feedback)
  • 1993: TV-Lüster
  • 1994/99: Cintia
  • 1994/2000/2007: Das Zimmer (The Room)
  • 1994: Selbstlos im Lavabad
  • 1994: Yoghurt On Skin – Velvet On TV
  • 1995: Search Wolken / Suche Clouds (elektronischer Heiratsantrag) (Search Wolken / Such Clouds (Electronic Marriage Proposal))
  • 1996: Sip My Ocean (Schlürfe meinen Ozean)
  • 1997: Ever Is Over All[43]
  • 1998: Blauer Leibesbrief (Blue Bodily Lettre)
  • 1999/2001, 2007, 2009: Kleines Vorstadthirn (Small Suburb Brain)
  • 1999: Himalaya Goldsteins Stube (Himalaya Goldstein’s Living Room)
  • 2000: Öffne meine Lichtung (Open my Glade (Flatten))[44]
  • 2000: Himalaya’s Sister’s Living Room
  • 2000: Peeping Freedom Shutters for Olga Shapir
  • 2000/2001: Supersubjektiv (Super Subjective)
  • 2001/2005: Wach auf (Despierta)
  • 2001: Expecting
  • 2002: Der Kuchen steht in Flammen (The Cake is in Flames)
  • 2003: Apfelbaum unschuldig auf dem Diamantenhügel (Apple Tree Innocent On Diamond Hill) (Manzano inocente en la colina de diamantes)
  • 2004: Herz aufwühlen Herz ausspülen (Stir Heart Rinse Heart)
  • 2005: Eine Freiheitsstatue für Löndön (A Liberty Statue for Löndön)
  • 2005: Homo Sapiens Sapiens
  • 2006: Celle selbst zu zweit, by Gutararist aka Gudrun Gut & Pipilotti Rist
  • 2007: Ginas Mobile (Gina’s Mobile)
  • 2008: Erleuchte (und kläre) meinen Raum (Enlight My Space )
  • 2011: Cape Cod Chandelier
  • 2014: Worry Will Vanish Horizon
  • 2015: Wir verwurzeln (Seelenfarben)
  • 2016: Pixelwald
  • 2016: 4th Floor To Mildness
  • 2017: Caressing Dinner Circle (Tender Roundelay Family) 5er table
  • 2018: Sparkling Pond, Bold-Coloured Groove & Tender Fire (Please Walk In And Let The Colors Caress You)[45]
  • 2020: Fritzflasche (The Bottle of Fritz)[46]
  • 2023: Hand Me Your Trust

Feature Film

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Collections

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Rist's work is held in the permanent collections of museums and galleries including the Museum of Modern Art,[47] the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,[48] the San Francisco MoMA,[49] and the Utrecht Centraal Museum.[50] Her installation, TV-Lüster, is on permanent display at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen.[51]

Influence

[edit]

Ever Is Over All was referenced in 2016 by Beyoncé in the film accompanying her album Lemonade in which the singer is seen walking down a city street smashing windows of parked cars with a baseball bat.[52]

Recognition

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Personal life

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Rist lives and works in Zurich,[65] Switzerland with her partner Balz Roth, an entrepreneur. She and Roth have a son, Himalaya.[66][10]

Further reading

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  • Grosenick, Uta; Riemschneider, Burkhard, eds. (2005). Art Now (25th anniversary ed.). Köln: Taschen. pp. 272–275. ISBN 9783822840931. OCLC 191239335.
  • Phelan, Peggy, Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Elisabeth Bronfen. Pipilotti Rist. London, New York: Phaidon, 2001. ISBN 0714839655
  • Ravenal, John B. Outer & Inner Space: Pipilotti Rist, Shirin Neshat, Jane & Louise Wilson, and the History of Video Art. Richmond, VA: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2002. ISBN 0917046617
  • Söll, Änne. Pipilotti Rist. Cologne: DuMont, 2005. ISBN 978-3832175788

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Great women artists. Phaidon Press. 2019. p. 338. ISBN 978-0714878775.
  2. ^ "Monochrome rose | ART&TRAM". art-et-tram.ch.
  3. ^ "Pipilotti Rist - Biography - Guggenheim Museum". www.guggenheim.org. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
  4. ^ "Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest". www.newmuseum.org. Retrieved 2021-04-07.
  5. ^ "Pipilotti Rist - Biography - Guggenheim Museum". www.guggenheim.org. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  6. ^ a b c d "Artists — Pipilotti Rist — Biography — Hauser & Wirth". Archived from the original on 2018-02-09. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  7. ^ Schjeldahl, Peter (September 20, 2010), "Feeling Good: The art of Pipilotti Rist", The New Yorker, retrieved July 15, 2019
  8. ^ Kazanjian, Dodie (December 1, 2010). "From the Archives: Pipilotti Rist is Caught on Tape". Vogue. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
  9. ^ Green, Tyler (host) (December 15, 2016), "No. 267: Pipilotti Rist, Mark Speltz", The Modern Art Notes Podcast, retrieved 2016-12-21
  10. ^ a b c d e Tomkins, Calvin (September 14, 2020). "The Colorful Worlds of Pipilotti Rist". The New Yorker. pp. 43–51. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  11. ^ Bishop, Claire. "Interview with Pipilotti Rist". MAKE Magazine. 91: 13–16.
  12. ^ Pipilotti Rist, September 2012 – August 2013 Archived July 7, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Hauser & Wirth, Somerset.
  13. ^ Grant, Catherine M. (2004), "Rist, Pipilotti", Grove Art Online, retrieved 3 March 2018
  14. ^ Mondloch, Kate (2018). A Capsule Aesthetic: Feminist Materialisms in New Media Art. University of Minnesota Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-4529-5510-0.
  15. ^ Mangini, Elizabeth (May 2001). "Pipilotti's Pickle: Making Meaning from the Feminine Position". PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. 23 (2): 1–9. doi:10.2307/3246502. JSTOR 3246502. S2CID 144369026.
  16. ^ "Rist's "I'm not the girl who misses much"". Tate.org.uk.
  17. ^ Holly, Rogers, Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art-Music [Oxford University Press, 2013]
  18. ^ "Pipilotti Rist "Pickelporno" 1992". ZKM.
  19. ^ Castagnini, Laura. "The 'Nature' of Sex: Parafeminist Parody in Pipilotti Rist's Pickelporno (1992)". Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art. 2: 164–181, 253.
  20. ^ "Sip My Ocean". Guggenheim. 1996-01-01. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  21. ^ Haslem, W (2018-12-21). Sip My Ocean: Immersion, Senses and Colour. Charles Sturt University. OCLC 1315668744. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  22. ^ "Pipilotti Rist. Ever Is Over All. 1997". The Museum of Modern Art.
  23. ^ Varley-Winter, Rebecca. "Colouring écriture féminine in Peter Manson's translations of Mallarmé". Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry. 11.
  24. ^ "Times Square Arts: Open My Glade (Flatten)". arts.timessquarenyc.org.
  25. ^ Pipilotti Rist: "I want to see how you see" Blick Production NY, 2003
  26. ^ Ilene Kurtz-Kretschmar: "Point of view: an anthology of the moving image" Blick Production NY, 2004 (Nr. 10. Pipilotti Rist. I want to see how you see. An interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist.
  27. ^ "Pipilotti Rist: Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters)". The Museum of Modern Art.
  28. ^ Bui, Phong (January 2009). "In Conversation: Pipilotti Rist with Phong Bui". The Brooklyn Rail.
  29. ^ "Pipilotti Rist's Pepperminta, the Barnes Foundation and The Art of the Steal, and other new art films". www.artnet.com. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  30. ^ Kennedy, Randy (2009-11-11). "The Uncomfortably Intimate Art of Pipilotti Rist". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  31. ^ Barnett, Laura (2011-09-04). "Pipilotti Rist: 'We all come from between our mother's legs'". the Guardian. Retrieved 2018-04-14.
  32. ^ "The Colorful Worlds of Pipilotti Rist". The New Yorker. 2020-09-02. Retrieved 2021-12-14.
  33. ^ Carol Vogel (31 July 1998), Boss Prize To a Scot New York Times.
  34. ^ Plagens, Peter (1998-05-01). "the Hugo Boss Prize". Artforum. Retrieved 2024-06-03.
  35. ^ "Buch Nr. 1 zur Sammlung". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). 2004-03-10. ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  36. ^ "Rist, Pipilotti | SIK-ISEA Recherche". recherche.sik-isea.ch. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  37. ^ "Kultur: Pipilotti Rist: "Ich habe Angst die Leute zu nerven"". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  38. ^ "stadtlounge | Kunstbulletin". www.kunstbulletin.ch. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  39. ^ "Sofitel Vienna Stephansdom in Wien". schoener-wohnen.de (in German). Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  40. ^ "Pipilotti Rist, Münsteranerin". kunstlebt.org (in German). Freunde des Museums für Kunst und Kultur Münster. Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  41. ^ Früh, Monika (2016-11-28). "Genf: Ein rosa Tram von Pipilotti Rist". FORUM elle (in German). Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  42. ^ "Tastende Lichter von Pipilotti Rist". Zürcher Museen (in German). Retrieved 2024-02-02.
  43. ^ "Ever is overall Pipiloti". YouTube. 12 May 2014. Retrieved 2022-09-19.
  44. ^ "Pipilotti Rist - Be Nice To Me (Flatten 04)". YouTube (in German). 24 June 2008. Retrieved 2022-09-19.
  45. ^ "Pipilotti Rist: Sparkling Pond, Bold-Coloured Groove & Tender Fire". Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  46. ^ "Brilliant Brushes - Discover & Buy Art". Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  47. ^ "Pipilotti Rist | MoMA". MoMA. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  48. ^ "Pipilotti Rist | Guggenheim". Guggenheim.org. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  49. ^ "Pipilotti Rist | SFMOMA". SFMOMA. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  50. ^ "Pipilotti Rist: Expecting | Centraal Museum Utrecht". Centraal Museum. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  51. ^ Genova, Christina (2012-06-02). "Kunst - Pipilotti Rist: Blutrot ist die Farbe der Künstlerin". St. Galler Tagblatt (in German). Retrieved 2024-02-01.
  52. ^ "Is Beyoncé's Windshield-Destroying Stroll in Lemonade Based on This '90s Art Film?". Slate.com. Slate. 25 April 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  53. ^ a b "Pipilotti Rist Archive" (PDF). Brooklyn Museum.
  54. ^ "Campusmanagement-Portal der Universität der Künste Berlin" [Campus management portal of the Berlin University of the Arts]. Berlin University of the Arts (in German). Retrieved 2020-02-01.
  55. ^ "Large St.Galler Culture Award for Manon". Canton of St. Gallen. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  56. ^ "Prize Winners". Festival de Sevilla. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  57. ^ "Joan Miró Prize: Pipilotti Rist (2009)". Archived from the original on 2010-01-31. Retrieved 2010-02-27.
  58. ^ "U.S. Art Critics Association Announces Winners of 26th Annual Awards". ArtDaily.org. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  59. ^ "Archives - 2010 - Winners". Miami International Film Festival. Retrieved 2020-01-02.
  60. ^ "carlos martinez architekten & pipilotti rist". Best Architects Awards. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  61. ^ "Pipilotti Rist Wins BAZAAR Art 2012's International Artist of the Year Award". The New York Observer. 28 May 2012. Retrieved 2014-11-28.
  62. ^ "Zürcher Festspielpreis". Festspiele Zürich. Archived from the original on 2016-05-19.
  63. ^ "Pipilotti Rist | Artist | Royal Academy of Arts". Royal Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 19 Feb 2023.
  64. ^ "Pipilotti Rist erhält den Kulturpreis des Kantons Zürich".
  65. ^ Pipilotti Rist Interview: A Visit to the Studio, 9 May 2019, archived from the original on 2021-12-22, retrieved 2021-04-07
  66. ^ Schjeldahl, Peter (2010-09-20). "Feeling Good". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
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