Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project

imageL: Untitled, 2001 R: Untitled, 2001 © Tierney Gearon Jack Youngelson and Peter Sutherland’s film The Mother Project (2006) takes a close look at photographer Tierney Gearon and her complicated relationship with her schizophrenic mother. For those of you unfamiliar with the film or Tierney’s photographs, here’s a brief description:

Photographer Tierney Gearon creates work that has been called manipulative, disturbing, and even perverse. A former model and dancer, Gearon came to notoriety in 2001 when, in the “I Am a Camera” show at London’s Saatchi Gallery, photos of her own naked and masked children had authorities threatening child pornography charges. Filmmakers Peter Sutherland (Pedal) and Jack Youngelson (producer, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib) follow this exceptional artist over the course of three years as she assembles her most daring and emotionally complex body of work to date: a series on her manic-depressive schizophrenic mother, who resides in Grey Gardens squalor in the frozen suburbs of upstate New York. The mixture of art and family can, at times, be too close for comfort, but like many of Gearon’s photographs, a subversive beauty emerges between ordinary moments and madness. Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project is a moving portrait of an artist, her inspirations, and her unconventional family relationships.
Also, on the film’s official website, you can view the trailer. imageL: Untitled, 2001 R: Untitled, 2001 © Tierney Gearon Since I love Tierney’s photographs (especially the work with her mother), I hoped to see film when it was first screened in New York for the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. After I missed it there, I wondered if I’d ever have another chance. Well, it turns out that the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is holding a series of screenings of The Mother Project in the Remis Auditorium throughout the month of November - the first of the screenings was held yesterday afternoon with Tierney present. According to the website, she will be also present for tonight’s screening at 5:30 pm. If you can’t make it tonight, here are the following dates for your calendar: Thursday, November 8, 2007, 2:15 pm Saturday, November 10, 2007, 10:30 am Friday, November 23, 2007, 3 pm Sunday, November 25, 2007, 10:30 am The photographs that Tierney made for this project, along with the photographs she makes with her children, can be found in her beautiful monograph Daddy, Where are You?, published in August by Steidl. And, though it hasn’t been updated in some time, there are also a few images to be found on her website.
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