| “Family is the root of all evil”, Fassbinder said, or maybe it was my father, I can’t remember. The first time I discovered Phoebe Gloeckner I was 16 years old, living in New York. I was transfixed by the cover of a book (Re/Search# 13: Angry Women) which showed a terrifying Medusa, in whose locks nestled maybe ten chestnut-colored serpents, rats, fish, bees and little telephones. I don’t recall much else, probably just feverish curiosity (it had the work of performance artists like Diamanda Galas and Carolee Schneemann.) But I do know for certain that what I am today -- a young warrior woman -- I owe in part to that book. Its Medusa image remains a kind of home base or point of origin for me; it is the witness to my rage. So when Jorge Vacca of Topolin Edizioni asked me to write a preface to A Girl’s Life by Phoebe Gloeckner, I immediately said, “Of course, it would be a joy!” And while I truly am pleased -- and honored -- to do my part to make the work of this great American artist known in Italy, I did not realize that I would have so much difficulty in giving birth to these few words. How can I describe the hyperreal and cruelly surreal world of Phoebe Gloeckner? Life itself is the material of the artist. Thought itself is the artist’s tool. In any medium, art is always a reflection of humankind and of the times. Coming to terms with oneself is absolutely necessary to life, but few are the artists who risk rendering autobiography universal. Phoebe Gloeckner is one of the greatest illustrators of our time. Her book can neither be read nor described...it can only be endured. Listen to the beating of my heart in the only possible redemption: Silence. ASIA ARGENTO Translation by Luigi Antonio Vivarini |
from an introduction to the Italian edition of A Child's Life by Asia Argento |
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| Asia Argento a fan's site |
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| Vita da Bambina published by Topolin Editor: Jorge Vacca, Translated into Italian by: Pier Luigi Gaspa Lettering: Giovanni Peritore |
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