Self-portrait as Clone of Jeanne d’Arc, 2019

Basel 2019
Self-portrait as Clone of Jeanne d’Arc

Société

Prints & Multiples
Fine Art Print on Hahnemühle PhotoRag Ultrasmooth 305 g, silver plated frame; 15 prints, 200.5 x 163 x 7.5 cm each
200.5 x 163.0 x 7.5 （厘米）
78.9 x 64.2 x 3.0 （吋）
Building upon an aesthetic universe conceived over the course of three exhibitions, Bunny Rogers’s installation Self-portrait as Clone of Jeanne d’Arc reveals the DNA of her ongoing exploration of the Columbine tragedy. The American artist explores the event – as well as its legacy – through 15 self-portraits fusing the artist with Joan of Arc, an animated character from the short-lived MTV program ‘Clone High’. The show is a bizarre satire of the popular teen drama genre of its time, following the interpersonal relationships within a student body of clones of famous historical figures. Rogers’s engagement with the figure of Joan emerged in tandem with her work on the Columbine Shooting. The 15 portraits mirror the 15 lives that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold’s shooting spree claimed on April 20, 1999 in Colorado, United States. In her work on the subject, Rogers discovered a subculture of teenage girls on the internet who obsess over Harris and Klebold, making artwork about them and even professing their sexual attraction for them. Within this context, Joan emerges as a cipher to understand them – and the inherent angst, violence, and desire of adolescent femininity.