Vivienne Dick arrived in New York City from Ireland just as second-wave feminism was rising and Manhattan was crumbling.
In the 1970s, you could move to the city with little in your pocket, live in a flat with the bathtub in the kitchen, survive on a part-time salary, and go out every night… unaware that you were part of the last avant-garde before globalism raised the rent and commodified individuality.
The long shadow of the Warhol Sixties permeated everything below 14th Street, and if we, on occasion, overdid the nihilism, there was a kind freedom in saying (and meaning) “I don’t care” without any apparent consequences. Or so we thought.
SHE HAD HER GUN ALL READY, Vivienne’s half-hour film from 1978, captures this mood in the psychologically fraught relationship between the two characters played by Lydia Lunch and Pat Place, legendary downtown musicians who, like everyone else, appeared in movies shot by their friends—Lizzie Borden, James Nares, Beth B., Scott B., Manuel de Landa, etc.
On Monday night, Vivienne will be in Los Angeles to present four of her films: SHE HAD HER GUN ALL READY, the half-hour THE IRREDUCIBLE DIFFERENCE OF THE OTHER (2013), and the shorts RED MOON RISING (2015), and AUGENBLICK (2017). This program was co-curated by Vera Dika, who will join Vivienne in conversation at the event.
ACROSS TIMES, BODIES AND SPACE—FILMS BY VIVIENNE DICK, Monday, March 5, at 8:30 pm.
REDCAT, Disney Hall, Music Center, downtown Los Angeles.
irishtimes.com/vivienne-dick-stifled-in-ireland-celebrated-in-new-york
See the 2017 video interview with Vivienne Dick, from Murmur Magazine:
Lydia Lunch (left) and Pat Place in She Had Her Gun All Ready.
