Vivienne Dick
Encyclopedia
Vivienne Dick is an Irish
experimental
and documentary
filmmaker.
She was born in Dublin but moved to the United States
in the 1970s. In the U.S., Dick became active in No Wave
film culture and produced a series of Super8
short films. Many of her films were staged around well-known New York City
sites such as Coney Island
, the Statue of Liberty
, and the World Trade Center
. The films featured punk
performers such as Lydia Lunch
, Pat Place (of the band Bush Tetras
) and Adele Bertei (of The Contortions). Film critic and author J. Hoberman
has called Dick the "quintessential No Wave filmmaker".
In 1982 Dick moved to Ireland, and then to London where she continued making films.
Dick's work formed part of two major retrospectives of American avant garde film: No Wave Cinema 1978-87 (1996) at the Whitney Museum, New York and Big as Life: An American History of Super8 Film (1999) at the Museum of Modern Art
, New York.
Dick currently teaches filmmaking at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
. Dick is making a documentary on underground Irish bands. She is also planning another feminist classic, "I Ain't Feelin' It."
She is referenced by the feminist dance-punk group, Le Tigre
, in their song "Hot Topic."
, London
from Friday 10 September – Tuesday 14 September 2010. It featured a collection of her remarkable films and included a performance by Lydia Lunch
as well as discussions with Nan Goldin
, Claire Pajaczkowska and Maeve Connolly, as well as films by other artists selected by Dick.
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
experimental
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
and documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
filmmaker.
She was born in Dublin but moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the 1970s. In the U.S., Dick became active in No Wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
film culture and produced a series of Super8
Super 8 mm film
Super 8 mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement of the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format....
short films. Many of her films were staged around well-known New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
sites such as Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
, the Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886...
, and the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
. The films featured punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
performers such as Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
, Pat Place (of the band Bush Tetras
Bush Tetras
Bush Tetras are an American post-punk band from New York City, popular in the Manhattan club scene in the early 1980s but never achieving much mainstream success. Their music combined funk rhythms and dissonant guitar riffs.-History:...
) and Adele Bertei (of The Contortions). Film critic and author J. Hoberman
J. Hoberman
James Lewis Hoberman , also known as J. Hoberman, is an American film critic. He is currently the senior film critic for The Village Voice, a post he has held since 1988.-Education:...
has called Dick the "quintessential No Wave filmmaker".
In 1982 Dick moved to Ireland, and then to London where she continued making films.
Dick's work formed part of two major retrospectives of American avant garde film: No Wave Cinema 1978-87 (1996) at the Whitney Museum, New York and Big as Life: An American History of Super8 Film (1999) at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, New York.
Dick currently teaches filmmaking at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology is a third level institute of education and is based at five locations in the west of Ireland.-Galway Campus:...
. Dick is making a documentary on underground Irish bands. She is also planning another feminist classic, "I Ain't Feelin' It."
She is referenced by the feminist dance-punk group, Le Tigre
Le Tigre
Le Tigre is an American electroclash band, formed by Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman in 1998. It also featured Sadie Benning from 1998 until 2001, and JD Samson for the rest of the group's run...
, in their song "Hot Topic."
Exhibitions
Vivienne's work featured in the Tate ModernTate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
from Friday 10 September – Tuesday 14 September 2010. It featured a collection of her remarkable films and included a performance by Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
as well as discussions with Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin
Nancy "Nan" Goldin is an American photographer.-Life and work:Goldin was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Boston, Massachusetts suburb of Lexington, to middle class Jewish parents whose ideas, moderately liberal and progressive, were put to the test when on April 12, 1965 their eldest...
, Claire Pajaczkowska and Maeve Connolly, as well as films by other artists selected by Dick.
Filmographie
- DVD, Afterimages 4 : Vivienne Dick, Lux. Comprenant : Guerillére Talks, 1978, 24 min; She Had Her Gun Already, 1978, 28 min; Staten Island, 1978, 4 min.
- 2005. Molecular Moments
- 2004. Saccade
- 2002. Excluded by the Nature of Things, DVD pour trois écrans
- 1999. Two Be Two
- 1994. A Skinny Little Man Attacked Daddy
- 1992. New York Conversations
- 1990. Two Pigeons
- 1989. London Suite
- 1988. Images : Ireland
- 1988. Pobal-Portrait of an Artist
- 1986. Rothach
- 1983. Trailer
- 1983. Like Dawn to Dusk
- 1982. Loisaida
- 1981. Visibility : Moderate
- 1980. Liberty's Booty
- 1979. Beauty Becomes the Beast
- 1978. She Had Her Gun All Ready
- 1978. Staten island
- 1978. Guerillere Talks
External links
- Excluded by the Nature of Things? Irish Cinema and Artist's Film, CIRCA, 106, Winter 2003, pp. 33–39.
- From no wave to national cinema: the cultural landscape of Vivienne Dick's early films (1978-1985), Maeve Connolly, National Cinema and Beyond, Four Courts Press 2004, 61-73.