CV118 - Moyra Davey — Nicolas Mavrikakis
Ciel variable 118 - Exhibiting Photography (Fall 2021)
Focus (Single Article, Digital Version)
Moyra Davey. Le récit personnel et l’art de la narration fragmentée contre les dogmes | The Personal Narrative and the Art of Fragmented Anti-dogma Narration
By Nicolas Mavrikakis
In reaction to “left-wing extremism” and campaigns for “art that is moral and bland, with no grey areas,” critic Nicolas Mavrikakis offers an impassioned reading of Moyra Davey’s practice, and specifically her video i confess (2019). This work, which addresses polarizing themes, leads, in Mavrikakis’s view, to reflection “beyond the opposition between good and evil.” Unclassifiable and complex, based on plays of images within the image, the video is “a sort of Russian doll” with multiple references, and Davey quotes James Baldwin and Pierre Vallières, among others. Like i confess, and Joyce Wieland’s film Pierre Vallières (1972), upon which Mavrikakis also comments, this essay rises against dogmas and suggests that we not get bogged down in fixed, simple readings of cultural history, including when we discuss Vallières, the author of White Niggers of America.
Details
Language : French and English
Digital Version : PDF, 1.4 Mb
Bibliographical Reference
Nicolas Mavrikakis, « Moyra Davey. Le récit personnel et l’art de la narration fragmentée contre les dogmes », Ciel variable, no 118, Montréal, 2021, p. 50-57.