Weak Field, 2007.
Artist of the Week
Emily Gove
By Miles Baker
Posted January 15th, 2007.
If I could cue the Alfred Hitchcock Presents music, I would do that now.
There is something about mild-mannered people and murder mysteries. Old Hitchcock, while an intimidating man no doubt, seemed so non-violent in all of his cameos and introductions. Emily Gove has a similar manner. I don't think she has (or will ever) murder(ed) people, but her art is littered with the suggestion of murder. Last year, her photo "Naughty Secretaries Club" won her a couple grand from BMO for their graduating undergrad competition. Now, Gove is taking the next logical step: trying to win awards at the grad student level. That, and trying to get her art shown.
MONDO: Murder plays a large part of a lot of your art. What is it about murder that attracts you to replicate it?
Emily Gove: I think it's less the act of murder itself that I'm attracted to, and more the representations of murder and violence that you see on the covers of pulp novels and movie posters from the 1940s and 50s. There's one cover in particular that I really love (I can't remember the title, unfortunately) that shows a woman's legs hanging out of the trunk of a car, but she's wearing these totally pristine red pumps. I think it's that kind of absurdity that I love.
Click to full image. Afternoon Tea, 2007.
MONDO: I think a lot of your pieces draw from different decades. Which eras inspire you the most, and why? It's not just the clothes, is it?
EG: Right now I love the 1950s and 60s, but I'm getting a little bit more into the 70s and (early) 80s now. I pretty much like everything except the 90s — too much neon. I'm also pretty into, like, now, because at this point people are going back and combining things from different eras, which is what many of the photos do. In one of them I used a Belle & Sebastian poster, which looks like it's from the sixties, but it says "compact disc" on it, so even if you don't know the band you can tell that it's modern. So I was kind of trying to make a nod to the fact that the images are made of up different elements appropriated from different places, as well as appropriated clothing and props.
And no, it's not just the clothes, it's also the wallpaper.
Click to larger image. Am I That Easy to Forget, 2007.
MONDO: You also happen to kill yourself a lot, using digital editing software to have yourself replicated multiple times. You've done it in a few different photo series – has it meant different things in different series?
EG: Not really; the whole killing myself thing isn't meant as any kind of metaphor or anything (I guess it would be quite literal if it was). I started out working with the pulp novel art, and recreating it using only myself because it was easier than finding models. It got bigger from there. I think at a certain point it got a little out of control, like when I was five different old ladies drinking the blood of schoolgirls, so I've been kind of trying to reel it in a bit lately.
MONDO: You're doing your masters in art at York University now. Can you talk a bit about how academia plays a role in art in general and also in your practice?
EG: Um, this is a hard question for me right now because the role of academia right now seems to be to drive me bonkers, but maybe you shouldn't print that. My thoughts at the moment are that I enjoy learning about theory, but if I think about it too much while I'm working, it kind of takes the enjoyment out of everything. So right now I'm trying to keep the two separate and maybe they'll come together at some point.
MONDO: If you had to fistfight any other artist in the world, who would you choose?
EG: Can they be fictional? Ben Affleck in Glory Daze. What a douche.