Etant Donnes, 2010
Powdered graphite on paper50 x 38 inches
Etant Donnes, 2010
Powdered graphite on paper38 x 50 inches
Etant Donnes, 2010
Powdered graphite on paper38 x 50 inches
Etant Donnes, 2010
Powdered graphite on paper66 x 50 inches
Etant Donnes, 2010
Powdered graphite on paper50 x 66 inches
Etant Donnes, 2010
Powdered graphite on paper38 x 50 inches
Étant donnés 2° (Untitled), 2011
Powdered graphite on paper66 x 50 inches
Étant donnés 2° (Untitled), 2011
Powdered graphite on paper50 x 38 inches
Étant donnés 2° (Untitled), 2011
Powdered graphite on paper28 x 22 inches
Étant donnés 2° (Untitled), 2011
Powdered graphite on paper38 1/8 x 28 3/4 inches
Étant donnés 2° (Untitled), 2011
Powdered graphite on paper14 x 11 inches
Étant donnés 2° (Untitled), 2011
Powdered graphite on paper66 x 50 inches
Étant donnés 2° (Untitled), 2011
Powdered graphite on paper50 x 38 inches
Étant donnés 2° (Untitled), 2011
Powdered graphite on paper50 x 38 inches
Étant donnés 2° (Untitled), 2011
Powdered graphite on paper14 x 11 inches
Etant Donnes, 2010
Powdered graphite on paper28 x 22 inches
Etant Donnes, 2010
Powdered graphite on paper28 x 22 inches
Etant Donnes, 2010-2012
Further images
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 1
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 2
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 3
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 4
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 5
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 6
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 7
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 8
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 9
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 10
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 11
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 12
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 13
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 14
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 15
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 16
)
-
(View a larger image of thumbnail 17
)
My wife Rose and I got together after my mom died. My mother collapsed
in her living room while I was talking to Rose on the phone. Rose is a
nurse and I thought she could offer some advice to me about my mother’s
health. She died while I was on the phone with Rose.
In 2003 both of our marriages fell apart. By 2004 I went back to
Ohio and moved in with Rose. She and I had known each other since high
school. We were both in between lives.
By 2007 Rose was pregnant with our daughter, Susie.
Étant Donnés is about death but also sex and rebirth. I started taking
a series of nude photographs of Rose in a wooded ravine near a waterfall
in Ohio. The place was a refuge for her when she was contemplating
divorcing her first husband. In the images there is a tension in what we
should feel for the figure. It is unclear if she is dead or alive, injured or
resting, seducing or disturbing.
In Cyrano de Bergerac’s death scene, Roxanne doesn’t know he’s dying
and he starts talking to her about the leaves falling all around them,
how they fall: “They know how to die. A little way from the branch to the
earth, a little fear of mingling with the common dust—and yet they go
down gracefully—a fall that seems like flying!” My mother had this same
peculiar dignity about her. Despite all her pain and the degradation that
surrounded her, there was always a potent presence and grace about her.
The title and the images reference Duchamp’s Étant Donnés, his last
major artwork. It is a tableau in which the composition is only completed
when the viewer peers through a pair of peep holes. According to the artist’s
wishes, it wasn’t displayed until after his death. Duchamp’s alter ego
was Rrose Sélavy, a pun that translates to “Eros is life.”