Pipilotti Rist

“Pipilotti Rist inspired what I think was my first real engagement with contemporary art. I must distinguish between engagement and seeing. I’d seen contemporary art before – noticed it, smiled, moved on – but it was never more than an afterthought compared to the “academic greats” of the Renaissance and Antiquity. How times have changed! Contemporary art is now my preferred realm of art history, and it’s all thanks Pipilotti Rist.

My first experience with Rist was Pixelwald in the Küntshaus Zurich. This single experience turned into several, as I visited Pixelwald in Houston, Texas, and spotted another of Rist’s works in London. The latter was especially significant; I’d been wrapping up my studies at Oxford at the time, and I’d dragged a friend of mine from the V&A to the Tate Modern. The two of us claimed neither to like nor understand contemporary art. Even so, we sat watching Rist’s Lungenflügel (2009) for about 30 minutes.

What kept us watching? Mere association with the imagery? We didn’t know what the video meant, only that it enraptured and connected us. Maybe we liked pretty plants and music, or maybe Rist has a true and strange talent in capturing what it feels like to be a woman. From feeling like a flower to ticking like a time bomb…going from vaunting your prettiness to being crushed by the weight of a kaleidoscopic glass ceiling.

Each time I see Pipilotti Rist’s work, I’m struck by the brilliance of her colors, the evocativeness of her sound, or the sharp vulgarity of her wit—as the pink and purple “la-dee-das” associated with traditional femininity become a spry jest at such defining expectations.

Since encountering her work, I’ve been encouraged to look deeper into contemporary art. It’s no longer an afterthought: there’s new meaning in light patterns, music, and the outlandish and unconventional mediums left untested before the contemporary. Still, when all is said and done, I always find myself drawn back to what Rist releases next.”

• Website and Contact
• Instagram
• Full Biography
• MoMA Artist Page
• Interview: Freeing the Wonderlight
• Interview: Color is Dangerous
• Video: Inside Pipilotti Rist’s Studio

• Ever is Over All (1997): A brutal yet humorous video transposing acts of female aggression over flowery, peaceful impressions expected of women.
• I’m Not the Girl Who Misses Much (1986): Responding to sexist music videos in the 20th century, Rist alters the performance of a young woman singing “Happiness is a Warm Gun”.
• Sip My Ocean (1996): Called a ‘fantasy of female empowerment’ – a woman floats through a dreamlike ocean as Rist shrieks the lyrics to Chris Isaac’s Wicked Game.
• Open My Glade [Flatten] (2000): A public art exhibition shown in Times Square – Pipilotti Rist tries desperately to break through the glass ceiling.