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It´s the opening night of Danielle de Picciotto´s latest exhibition, "Misfit," and one of her drawings is being tattooed onto the upper arm of her partner, industrial music legend Alexander Hacke. And it´s loud. The sound of the needle, controlled by No Pain No Brain´s resident tattoo artist extraordinaire, W.T.Norbert, is being electronically manipulated and recorded by Hacke, to be reappropriated at a later date. |
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Misfit – Joni Taylor
It´s the opening night of Danielle de Picciotto´s latest exhibition, "Misfit," and one of her drawings is being tattooed onto the upper arm of her partner, industrial music legend Alexander Hacke. And it´s loud. The sound of the needle, controlled by No Pain No Brain´s resident tattoo artist extraordinaire, W.T.Norbert, is being electronically manipulated and recorded by Hacke, to be reappropriated at a later date.
This process of transformation, or even transubstantiation, where one medium becomes another, is evocative of de Picciotto´s own artistic ethos. For her, creativity is malleable. An illustration can become an animation for a theatre production—such as in Mountains of Madness—or a local concert, the inspiration for her next video clip or photographic series, as in her work with Einstürzende Neubauten and the Sin City Circus Ladies.
Her repertoire ranges from sketches of outsiders and freaks, to oil paintings of tough, brazen women and on to her mesmerizing live video for the band Sanctuary. She has curated extensively in Berlin and elsewhere, and also makes her own music, collaborating with seminal musicians like Gudrun Gut and Malaria.
Danielle explains: "Music, film, drawing and painting all have the same importance for me. It is like a body—one arm is film, the other is music and the legs are painting and illustration—all of them together make up that which is Danielle de Picciotto, and each one is set into motion when needed or best fitted. It is an instinctive way of working—nothing planned, but in constant motion—merging in and out of each others’ realms."
Her characters are from an era of elegance and carnival, of fairground bells and merry-go-rounds. Bike riding school girls, antlered femme fatales, legless wonders and cutesy animals all swim around the strong female protagonist who, with long dark hair and dark eyes, looks remarkably like De Picciotto herself.
“My figures and themes will always be outsiders and freaks—simply because I have no idea of what it is like not to be one. But, being an outlaw has as many facets as anything else—you can have the aggressive, ‘up-your-ass’ street girl, or the wispy dreamer not capable of sending an e-mail. But as Burroughs said, he cannot be considered an outlaw because he doesn´t recognize the so-called laws, as laws, anyway. So, following this line of thought, my figures are always creating their own laws and surroundings—choosing what feels most comfortable to them at the moment—not caring about the atmosphere they were in a minute ago."
She explains her own childhood, how her father was stationed in the army and how she had to move many times.
"My childhood was quite lonely…The army barracks I grew up in were bleak, so I created a world of my own, made up of my favorite fairy tale figures, beautiful scenery and outsider stories. I still love these settings, colors and fantasies."
This current exhibition follows the outsider motif that permeates her work and comprises 13 black and white line drawings of tattooed women existing in a dream-like world populated by a Noah´s Ark of fantastical creatures. As the title suggests, it´s a carny world of freaks reminiscent of a long-gone Coney Island, yet strangely similar to de Picciottos own life, in Berlin and on the road.
In Beauty and the Beast, a lady lies surrounded by animals, both live and dead—an Olympia-esque figure reclining against a backdrop of lobsters, baby elephants, robots and flowers. A still life crashing into a “Taxidermy Wunderkammer.”
Peacock Palace depicts three burlesque dancers in stockings and high heels, surrounded by adoring peacocks and, in the powerful Seduction, a lone woman takes a sword to her chest, a sacrificial yet strangely pleasurable act. In Das Einen Brot, another illustrated woman in laced up boots stands beneath the shade of a decorated umbrella, held up by a friendly beast.
And what is the fascination with tattoos? “Misfits” is not the only series to feature them extensively and not the first exhibition to occur in a tattoo parlor (in May she will also show at the Strychnin gallery in New York). “I’m fascinated by tattoos as they are the only truly scandalous form of art left which still causes strong reactions. They cannot really be considered lightheartedly. It is a deeply controversial theme up to today in almost all countries, and I like things that bring up questions!"
