From Our Archives: Annette Lemieux
Annette Lemeiux, Bad Habits, 2015.
This interview was originally featured in Issue No. 17 — Enigma.
STEVE MILLER: In the work of Sally Gall and the Glow Series by Andrea Blanch that is in the same issue of this magazine called Enigma, you don’t necessarily have to know their work...the enigma for me in their work is to figure out exactly what you’re seeing. Their images are abstract enough to mess with your knowledge of the lens capturing something about which you’re not sure of. In your work the image is clear, the enigma is in deciphering the meaning. For example, at your last show at Kent Fine Art there was a work entitled Hellos and Goodbyes, 1994 – a wall of twenty – two hands in separate frames presumably waving. Eleven were positive images, and the other eleven were the negative version of the same image. My question is what are you greeting?
ANNETTE LEMIEUX: First of all, I always think my work is very clear. It’s clear to me, apparently maybe not so clear to the viewer, and that always puzzles me...because I think I’m very clear. But, is the point to be clear at all? With Hellos and Goodbyes you use the word ‘greeting,’ someone waving to someone. For me it was that, but it was also grieving in the end...the goodbye. ‘Greeting’ and ‘grieving’ I guess. It was a hello and a goodbye to something or someone. There’s no enigma there, I thought.
Annette Lemeiux, Fumée, 2015.
STEVE: Well there is. The enigma is that you do have to decipher it. Because the next question is what were the sources of the hands waving?
ANNETTE: Many sources, from many books actually. My life was informed by the news and picture books, places that I was never physically at. They’re from all over the place. They’re from Nazi Germany, from U.S cocktail parties, from political rallies, etc., etc.
STEVE: They are displayed generally in an oval. How do you come up with the straight line, vertical, the grouping...how did that happen?
ANNETTE: That was intuitive. You say an oval, I say a cross.
STEVE: See, this is the enigma. You’re giving some clarity. This piece preceded Left Right Left Right from 1995 that’s currently on view at the Whitney. Is that correct?
ANNETTE: Yes.
Courtesy of Annette Lemieux and Elizabeth Dee Gallery, NYC.
STEVE: The Whitney exhibition was about portraits. Did you conceive that particular piece Left Right Left Right as a portrait?
ANNETTE: At that time it was my observation of what was going on during the election in 1996. During the debates, observing the opposites.
STEVE: So it’s like the portrait of a moment or a portrait of a time?
ANNETTE: Exactly.
Annette Lemieux, Left Right Left Right, 1995.
STEVE: And that was a great idea for a protest, I thought it was a really effective gesture and the first wave of artists making strong statements about the election so I thought it was a beautiful gesture.
ANNETTE: It was really from my gut.
STEVE: Regarding issues of production, I did notice that all of your photographic editions are miniscule. You make those pieces kind of unique and special, they’re like one over three with an A/P. In your case, I see the small editions as a sign of personal integrity to your work. Do you want to comment on that?
ANNETTE: Hmm, if I do a benefit photograph for an institution there can be an edition of 25-50, because it’s benefiting them. Maybe I’m not thinking of benefiting myself, but maybe I should.
STEVE: Early in your career you had an association with the Pictures Generation.
ANNETTE: Well you start somewhere and then you branch off on your own. I was actually roped in with the Neo-Geo group because I was making some paintings that were geometric. I am thinking now of Ashley Bickerton – what he’s making now compared to what he was making then. You just can’t stay somewhere for no reason. Imean if you stay in that place where you’re put, then you’re not making any work, you’re just making stuff.
Annette Lemieux, Mon Amour, 1987.
STEVE: Mon Amour from 1987 seems like your most overtly political piece. I assume the source on the left is what I think is a horrific scene from the WWII, correct?
ANNETTE: It was Hiroshima. What was horrible was on the right side there are bathing beauties having a splendid time on what looks like a stairs that reflects the stairs in the image from Hiroshima. Both situations could have happened on the same day. So, it’s two different realities happening at the same time.
I think all this comes from a very early place...meaning early observations. I come from the very lower middle class, just above the worst situation. I would walk to school and would pay attention to the neighborhood bum, which was very upsetting to me.
STEVE: One of my all time favorite pieces from you is The Great Outdoors, 1989, with an Adirondack chair and Adirondack table with a lamp in front of the picture that is from an old postcard. It makes me love the nostalgia of the postcard image but also the loss of the primary experience in nature and being replaced by a substitute. Photography is some form of a visual stand-in for a past action and the Picture Generation movement was about filling up the empty vessels among the multitude of images and giving them new meaning. Are you still collecting images for your work right now and what kind?
ANNETTE: I’m collecting images from the movies I’m watching or the films I’m interested in for my upcoming show. I’m thinking of more words and symbols after this election. It’s like in some way I have no words to say, maybe the words I say are documents...more documents of something said and less of me saying something. I don’t know if that makes any sense.
It’s like looking at what symbols are supposed to be but what they are now...possibly. They are once again based on looking at something that is vulnerable as we are very vulnerable right now.
To view the full interview, visit Issue No. 17 — Enigma.
