In the project room, Marvelli Gallery is pleased to present Joan of Arc, a new two-channel video by American artist Alex McQuilkin.

Alex McQuilkin’s new video draws immediate inspiration from Maria Falconetti’s famous portrayal of Joan of Arc in the 1928 film “The Passion of Joan of Arc” by Carl Theodor Dreyer. In the video, McQuilkin juxtaposes footage from the film with her own, creating a soulful meditation on the power of images. As with her previous videos (Romeo and Juliet, and Teenage Daydream: It’s only Rock & Roll), McQuilkin continues the exploration of the theatricality of suffering and the subtle connection between pleasure and pain triggered by desire. Like Maria Falconetti, McQuilkin shaves her head and offers her unadorned face to the scrutiny of the camera. In her own words the work expresses, “The circularity of trying to inhabit yourself by copying/imitating someone else who seems to fully inhabit herself, and in this process negating yourself.” McQuilkin uses Dreyer’s film to legitimize her own feelings and experiences.

Alex McQuilkin received her BFA from New York University in 2002. In the past few years, she has exhibited extensively in Europe: Berlin, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, London and Madrid, among other venues. Currently McQuilkin is participating in the Kunst Film Biennale in Cologne, Germany. She also recently exhibited at P.S.1, New York, Kunst-Werke, Berlin and Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid. Her work is prominently featured in a recent book on the Olbricht Collection. Stills from Romeo and Juliet (I Wanna Be Claire Danes) are featured on the cover of the catalogue Final Cut: Media Art and Cinema, published for the European media art festival in Osnabrueck, Germany.