EXHIBITION: NIGHT WATCHING BY RINEKE DIJKSTRA
EXHIBITION: NIGHT WATCHING BY RINEKE DIJKSTRA
CREDITS
Rineke Dijkstra (b. 1959, The Netherlands) is well-recognised for portraying specific social groups, such as mothers, adolescents, teenagers and soldiers. The key theme of her work – both still photography and video – is vulnerability, which she extracts from her subjects through the process of photographing on her large format camera. Through her photographic series, Dijkstra invites her viewers to follow her subjects as they transform over time, illuminating the variety of stages of adolescence and maturity.
This March, Marian Goodman Gallery will present her first UK solo show since 2010. The exhibition will include the UK premiere of ‘Night Watching’ (2019), a video installation initially commissioned and first shown at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam in 2019. The video features fourteen different groups of people observing and speaking in front of Rembrandt’s large iconic painting ‘The Night Watch’ (1642). From Japanese businessmen to a group of young artists, the scenes in the video explore the different ways a viewer might relate to a painting and its subjects.
Furthermore, the gallery will display a selection of works from a number of Dijkstra’s recognised photography series. Specifically, Marian Goodman Gallery will reveal two portraits from Dijkstra’s ongoing series ‘Family Portraits’ (2012-) taken in London last month. It depicts two different pairs of adolescent siblings posing in their London homes staring into the lens of the camera with no particular facial expression, typical of Dijkstra’s portraiture. The exhibition will additionally include photographs from series ‘Chen and Efrat’ (1999-2005) and ‘Emma, Lucy, Cecile (Three Sisters)’ (2008-2014).
Marian Goodman Gallery was founded in New York City in 1977 and later in 1995 the gallery expanded to Paris and in 2014 to London. Marian Goodman can be considered as one of the most respected and influential gallerists of contemporary art in the world.
Dijkstra, therefore, seems like a great pick to represent European photography as her intimate use of the photography medium unveils moments in transition and change, ultimately reflecting the resonance and contingency of the relationship between the photographer, subject and audience.
Rineke Dijkstra’s exhibition opens on 12 March – 6 p.m. and will be on show until 25 April 2020 in Marian Goodman Gallery in London.
