Lydia Schouten

The latest work from Lydia Schouten, the interactive video installation ‘Le Jardin Secret’ (2006), is a modern fairy tale. It tells the seemingly carefree story of a group of people wandering through the woods. A story that seems to pass beyond reality. However, it turns out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Hidden behind the beauty of nature is, in fact an indictment against the deterioration of values. A secret that is divulged by the garden at the end.

Although this work also departs from earlier works through its sophisticated form and its engagement, in many ways it remains a logical continuation. Lydia Schouten always tells stories. It’s what she started out doing and what she still does now. It is also why she often chooses forms of expression in which time passes: the performance, the video tape, the video installation, the film or the stage play. These stories do not behave like normal stories, they serve the artist and must cater to her whims and unpredictabilities. The idea of creating a ‘standard’ work is unthinkable. Excitement, suspense and temptation make their appearance at the very moment that the straight and narrow is left behind.

The influence of the media play a significant role in all the stories. In works such as ‘Romeo is Bleeding’ (1982) and ‘Split Seconds of Magnificence’ (1984) it was film, television and glossy advertising that brought colour to the fictional world. They created a world in which eternal beauty is mistress and glamour willingly goes along with its role as slave. In this the artist played the main role in an ironic and sometimes hilarious way and plunged with obvious pleasure into the sea of pretence. In ‘Echoes of Death’ (1986), but particularly in later installations such as ‘A Virus of Sadness’ (1990) and ‘Celebrating my 40th birthday alone’ (1990) the world caught a flavour of distress. The longing aroused dangerous situations or could no longer allow itself to be satisfied. Through this, life appeared to have lost its purpose. Death entered the stage. The make-believe world was exposed and thereby the mass media that had evoked it.

This unmasking is continued in ‘Le Jardin Secret’. In Schouten’s eyes the mass media not only expose the (moral) deterioration, they even stimulate it. If the artist had previously been happy to ignore reality and go along with the fiction of the media, after all, fairyland is a lovely place in which to linger, she now stands outside and can see what this influence has brought about. While in her earlier works she took her imagery largely and indeed deliberately from television, Hollywood films and chic advertising, she is now speaking her own, more relevant language.

Schouten belonged to the ‘eighties movement’ who made their theme representation. She found herself in the company of Barbara Kruger, Richard Prince, Rob Scholte and many others. However she never approached these themes from a conceptual or theoretical angle, she always used the story as a vehicle. This is still what distinguishes her from many of her contemporaries.

-0-

 ”Since television began, the media have started to define our view of day to day life more and more. The media produce an imaginary world, that, in contradiction to what we expect, is very private. The actual world in which we live contrasts sharply to this and is becoming increasingly dull and grey. The media show desires in a continuously more sophisticated manner, while ‘our’ desires become more aggressive and remain unrequited. (…) the media have induced a restlessness in modern man, whereby people become passionate about the various codes that the media trot out.”         Lydia Schouten, 1986

(c) Rob Perrée 2006

-0-

LYDIA SCHOUTEN

1948, Leiden

Lives and works in Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

Her work was shown in a.o. Ludwig Museum, Budapest (2006); Gallery Park Roz, St. Petersburg (2003); Centre George Pompidou, Paris (2002); Kunstmuseum Bayreuth (2000); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (1998); Provinciaal Museum, Hasselt (1994); Houston Center for Photography (1994); World Expo, Sevilla (1994); Nederlands Foto Instituut, Rotterdam (1994); Kunstverein, Frankfurt (1993); Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo (1991); Gemeentemuseum, Helmond (1990); PS 1, New York (1989); Kunstverein, Cologne (1989); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (1988); Gemeentemuseum, Arnhem (1988); Museum Folkwang, Essen (1985); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1984); Stedelijk Museum, Gouda (1984); Kunstambt, Berlin (1983).

Selected bibliography

2003

Jeroen Boomgaard, Bart Rutten. Ed. The Magnetic Era. Rotterdam;

1996

Lydia Schouten, Maarten Struys. Vuil. Rotterdam;

1994

[Lydia Schouten]. Cat. Provinciaal Museum, Hasselt;

1992

Lydia Schouten. Personals. Rotterdam;

1990

Imago. Cat. Montevideo, Amsterdam;

1989

Lydia Schouten. Desire. Rotterdam;

1988

Rob Perrée. Into Video Art. The Characteristics of a Medium, Amsterdam;

1987

Reflections. Cat. Fodor Museum, Amsterdam;

1986

Fotografia Buffa. Cat. Groninger Museum;

1984

The Lunimous Image. Cat. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam;

1979-1984

Modern Denken. Art Magazine.