Utilizing a mix of documentary and improvisational styles, the portraits featured in these three videos highlight the often forgotten, the marginal, those on the edge of society. The portraits are equally grotesque, comic and tender, and Cumming’s photography is characteristically unblinking and relentless.
DESCRIPTION
A Prayer For Nettie dramatizes the death of an elderly woman who was Cumming’s photographic model from 1982 to 1993, presenting an improvised series of prayers and memorials for Nettie Harris by people who knew her, and some who did not. In its ambiguous mix of tenderness and aggression, A Prayer For Nettie extends the traditions of the grotesque and the absurd. The fervent prayers of the actors are undermined by indifference, forgetfulness, and the presence of the camera. In the end, comedy turns the tables on piety and remembrance as Nettie looks up from the grave.
This title is also available on Donigan Cumming: Controlled Disturbance and Donigan Cumming Videoworks: Volume 1.