Denise Prince
Still from Intimate Distance / Adulterer, a performance and video performed in Marfa, Texas during the Chinati Foundation's Open House weekend, October 2008.
The performance was documented and combined with additional footage for the video short. Intimate Distance/ Adulterer honestly admits to the ethical failures that are part of being human. Prince describes the unguarded pleasure of an affair and the painful destruction of her marriage without allowing for an easy moral solution.
“I have never heard of anything so raw in my life. I really respect your honesty…
You are an intense person and you seem to have no fear. I know you must but you really put yourself out there.”
Sara Simon Behrnes
The emotional fearlessness in the work mostly consists of a willingness to look bad while speaking the truth as I know it. Confidence is important to the work and mostly in relation to the deeply sensitive voice I am employing despite the fact that it’s the last thing in the world I want to expose. It may also be the trajectory towards the things I’m most afraid of that makes the work compelling. That makes it very human. The videos have shown or will show in art galleries and festivals in Milan, Istanbul, San Francisco, Austin and (consistently) on my website.
Intimate Distance / Adulterer may be seen under portfolio one, fifth miniature square at www.deniseprince.com.
Hi Denise,
I’m interested in the dress you wear in this performance. I’m compelled by its simplicity and underlying sensuality. As I watch you describe how the affair unfolded in the video the garment also made me think about the ritual of confession and clothing worn by monks, etc.
How did you come to select and/or make it?
Best regards,
Jillian
Thanks for taking the time to watch it Jillian and post a comment.
It’s a 70’s era nightgown. I’d considered doing the performance in front of a motel and liked the stumbling out into the parking lot feel. It seemed classic, something that might be costume for an adulteress (the Graduate comes to mind). I also felt very naked in it. It is revealing. I didn’t realize quite how revealing but I was hundreds of miles from an alternative. Ultimately it was a great choice because, choosing to remove my jewelry, I felt exposed.
Since the work is about speaking (in public) things that are not only typically private but that I don’t tend to want to voice to myself. This made it impossible to hide behind.
Denise