Innovative Curatorial Projects – Paris / SingaporeLaurie Simmons
*1949, New York, USA. Lives and works in New York, USA.
Laurie Simmons graduated from the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia in 1971. Her photographic work which is largely devoted to the representation of women via stagings of dolls, paper silhouette cut-outs and ventriloquist characters, has been shown throughout the world. In 1997, the Baltimore Museum of Art presented a retrospective of her work, entitled Music of Regret, involving 150 photographs. Her major monograph, Laurie Simmons: Walking, Talking, Lying was published in 2005.
The Music of Regret / USA / 2006 / 40' / 16:9
The Music of Regret is a musical in three parts that appropriates the genre and reaffirms its happy, fanciful aspects. The film is peopled with familiar characters from Laurie Simmons' world: ventriloquist dummies, anthropomorphic puppets and oversized everyday objects. Inspired by the work of artist Ardis Vinklers, Laurie Simmon's' first film builds on her photographic work expanded into performance. She invited musicians, professional puppeteers, dancers from the Alvin Ailey dance company, filmmaker Ed Lachman and the actress Meryl Streep to join her for the occasion.