Anna Bromley and Sandy Volz combine word and image in their joint projects. At the centre of their dialogue is a questioning of how bodies are defined.
Glamour Technicians deals with the country singer Dolly Parton and her hyperfemininity. The star's flamboyant self-staging manages to combine a sincere gentleness with a sexualized femme* style. The critical musician and queer icon has been pursuing her independent path since the 1960s as a producer, not only of her music, but also of her body.
The artists' serial image and sound collages explore body and voice as tools of self-creation. From printed online portraits of the singer, Sandy cuts fragments of skin, hair, and textiles and condenses them into relief collages on white paper that are sensually reminiscent of bodies. Correspondingly, Anna edits two-minute tracks from sequences of Parton's talk show interviews from the 1980s and 1990s as well as fragments of her early songs.
In the spatial structure of Glamour Technicians, sound meets image head-on. The seven relief collages are fixed to the wall in a row with nails at the upper corners. Opposite are two loudspeakers, installed at body-height and connected with visible electrical cables, from which Dolly Parton’s voice fills the room in sampled loops.
7 relief collages on paper, 59 x 42 cm
3 sound collages, 2 min
2018
