July 11, 2004
Nan Goldin at Yvon Lambert Gallery, Paris
An Artforum.com review of the Nan Goldin exhibition on view through July 24 at Yvon Lambert in Paris. The link dies soon, so here's the full text:
In response to "Heartbeat," Nan Goldin's show at Matthew Marks Gallery last year, Roberta Smith commented on Goldin's position as a "lonely outsider" whose relationship to her subjects (in this case, young lovers) seemed to have grown more voyeuristic of late. For this exhibition of mostly new work, Goldin counters the criticism by inserting herself into the narrative—more than a dozen bedroom scenes depict her own lover, Jabalowe—and by training her lens on couples along the full age spectrum, from cherubic toddlers to her parents kissing on their bed. While "Heartbeat" was anchored by a slide show set to Bjork's enigmatic glossolalia, the new slide show, Honey on a Razor blade. Part II—Teenagers, 2004, features more didactic sound-track choices (Hole's "Doll Parts" accompanying mid-'90s pictures of supermodel James King, for example). The triteness weakens the emotional intensity of the images of King, male sex workers in Southeast Asia, and the leader of a Brooklyn girl gang. But the 1972 series "The Other Side"—small black-and-white portraits of Boston drag queens—is on view in the back room, reminding us that despite occasional slips, Goldin's aesthetic has been remarkably consistent all along.