Nan Goldin: Sirens review ★★★★☆ by Ifan Llewelyn
The work of American photographer Nan Goldin has erupted in popularity in recent years. Many London-dwellers discovered her this past year through her Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986) which went on display at the Tate Modern. Her unflinching exploration of the HIV crisis, the opioid epidemic, queer bodies and intimacy have garnered her international renown. Her first solo show in 15 years, Sirens, landed at the Marian Goodman Gallery and delivered on all we’ve come to expect from Goldin: gritty, gaudy and queer.
The show consists of a handful of her photographs, one of her epochal slide shows and her first foray into video. Her images have an undeniable ‘from the trenches’ feel to them, getting up close and personal with her subject. You feel that she’s really submerging herself in these glamorous party scenes. You can imagine her squatted in a corner of the drag artists’ dressing room. In the more intimate scenes, you can feel her knee lean into the mattress as she captures her subjects copulating. Her unforgiving flash captures these moments as they are, armpit hairs and all.
As is often the case with Goldin’s exhibitions, or at least recently, her portrait of trans women reign supreme. The style and glamour that these images exude is radical considering the realities of being gender non-conforming in the late 70s. Giving them the dignity they so rarely received, Goldin’s images portray them as they saw themselves.
“… the work expresses the sinister underbelly of addiction”
The knock-kneed glamour of her photography doesn’t quite translate itself to her video work, nor should it. In Salome (2019), a three-screen video work based on the biblical tale immortalised by Oscar Wilde, the titular figure performs her infamous dance of the seven veils. Shrouded in 70s disco and silent film surrealism, a drag queen disrobes to reveal her genitals. Elsewhere, Memory Lost (2019) tackles a more immediate issue. Reflecting on her previous struggle with addiction, and her on-going war with the influential Sackler family over their part in the opioid crisis, the work expresses the sinister underbelly of addiction.
Though her ‘skyscapes’ leave a little to be desired, her portraits always deliver. Sensitive, intimate and thought-provoking, they always manage to speak to the human condition, no matter how peculiar the setting. Even naked, dripping in silver stars, in ‘Greer Modeling Jewellery’ (1985) the subject is deep in contemplation. The stark red background draws back her bold lip.
Nan Goldin ‘Sirens’ is running at the Marian Goodman Gallery, Soho W1F 9DY ‘til January 11th.
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