I haven’t been performing much since having a baby, but recently got to perform at two Zoom events featuring photographer Justine Kurland.
- May 6, 2020 “At Home with Justine Kurland” Aperture Fund
- May 21, 2020 “Reimagining the Image: Justine Kurland” International Center of Photography
At both events, I played my song “Lily” (2009) which is about another close friend and Kurland collaborator, and shared experiences of being in some of her early “Girl Pictures.” Kurland also shared some new collage-based work that is so good, I wish I could link to it, but I don’t think it’s viewable anywhere online yet.
Here’s part of a Vanity Fair article about the ICP event (I’m in a few of the photos included in the article at the link):
“Some of the girls Kurland documented became artists in their own right. At a Zoom event on Wednesday to celebrate the new book, Rebecca Schiffman, one of the girls who is now grown up, performed a song dedicated to the memory of another girl Kurland photographed, Lily Wheelwright, who died in 2007 at the age of 24. In our interview, Kurland quoted a few lyrics from Schiffman’s song that resonated with her experience of Wheelwright as a magnetic girl. “It’s a really beautiful song, and the lyrics are something like ‘knowing you is living,’” she said.
During the event, Kurland and Schiffman discussed their memories about the road trips and close relationships that undergirded the Girl Pictures two decades ago. Kurland became genuinely close to her subjects, and Schiffman and Wheelwright even sublet Kurland’s apartment for some time while she was out on the road.
Kurland asked Schiffman why she went on all the road trips as a 17-year-old. “You have a way of getting people to go along with you,” she replied, and mentioned a more recent moment in their friendship when Kurland coaxed her into a spider-filled shed to take photographs.”
