Born in 1978, Camille Henrot graduated from the Ecole des Art Décoratif in Paris. She now lives and works in New York. Best-known for her videos and animated films combining drawn art, music and occasionally scratched or reworked cinematic images, Camille Henrot’s works blur the traditionally hierarchical categories of art history.
Her works consider the fascination with the “other” and “elsewhere” in terms of geography and sexuality. This encounter’s fascination is reflected in popular modern myths that have inspired her, such as King Kong and Frankenstein. She enjoys not being in full control and mastering a field, which stems from her unbound curiosity, which forms the core of her practice.
Artists
Lida Abdul, Afghanistan
Said Atabekov, Kazakhstan
Mohamed Bourouissa, Algeria
Chen Chieh-Jen, Taiwan
Cao Fei, China
Yang Fudong, China
Cyprien Gaillard, France
Dejan Kaludjerović, Yugoslavia
Mari Kim, South Korea
Kamin Lertchaiprasert, Thailand
Taus Makhacheva, Russia
Almagul Menlibayeva, Kazakhstan
Mariko Mori, Japan
Ahmet Ögüt, Turkey
Adrian Paci, Italy
Public Delivery, South Korea
Wang Qingsong, China
Walid Raad, Lebanon
Cheng Ran, China & Item Idem, France
Taps & Moses, Germany
Guido van der Werve, Netherlands
Erwin Wurm, Austria
Miao Xiaochun, China
Exhibited: The Strife of Love in a Dream, 2011
The video opens with psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar’s line that ‘India is the unconsciousness of the West’ was commissioned by the Centre Pompidou’s show “Paris-Delhi-Bombay” in 2011.
Mixing shot across India and France, the video dresses scenes of Shiva-worshipping pilgrims at Annamalaiyar Temple in Tamil Nadu, with workers sorting through hundreds and thousands of Atarax strips, a pill used to appease anxiety and cure allergies, as well as snake bites.
Over the 11 minutes, she references the fascination and fear of snakes across eastern and western myths, inspired from Adam and Eve to Medusa or Hermes’ Caduceus in the pharmaceutical world.
Through such images and symbols, she portrays a universalism, highlighting similarities over contextualization and specific historical, economic or cultural conditions that would influence behaviors.
