Marianna Simnett

Simnett studied at a musical theatre school as a teenager.[4] She received a BA from Nottingham Trent University in 2007 and an MA from the Slade School of Art in 2013.[5][2]

Simnett's work examines the perception and imagination of the (human) body.[2][6] In the works she has created to date, the themes of sickness and the intervention of medicine figure large.[6] Themes of contamination, disease, violation, sexuality, identity, and metamorphosis [7] Central to surrealist visions are issues of vulnerability, autonomy, and control.[7] Simnett cites empathy, trauma, catharsis and the embodiment of these as important themes in her practice.[8] Throughout her body of works and the works themselves is a nonlinear narrative of "bodily dread".[7]

Simnett works with non-actors: children, farmers, doctors, scientists.[7] She make extensive use of abrupt transitions from one sequence to another.[3] She offers a fragmented representation of multi-faceted reality.[3] Simnett re-uses footage from early works; Blood In My Milk merges (newly edited) footage from her trilogy (The Udder, Blue Roses and Blood) with Worst Gift (2017), a reprise of The Needle and The Larynx.[7]

"Her recent work explores female subjectivity and bodily integrity as they relate to the power dynamics of the medical profession".[10] "employed the forensic and macabre to elicit a visceral reaction from viewers" [7] Simnett focuses on the dystopic consequences of technology through a psychosexual lens[7] Simnett's work elicits a physical response though its depiction of physiological processes and techniques such as dreamlike sequences contrasted with hyper-real scenarios[11] and the use of music.[12] Simnett induces the same emotions, such as fear, that she enacts in her work.[1] Her work has been said to combine mythic structures with the aesthetics of medical documentaries.[7] "Simnett composes fanciful narratives, employing leaps of logic while creating intentional slippages among her characters’ identities, genders, and physiognomies".[8] References Donna Haraway and Paul B. Preciado.[8] Simnett's consideration of self-preservation mobilizes feminist concerns without becoming prescriptive.[8]

Her practice has been influenced by Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman.[12] Simnett credits Bruce Nauman with getting her into moving-image work, and cites Derek Jarman as a "huge influence".[13] Simnett has affinity to Mika Rottenberg.[9]

"Transformation is much more my message than amputation—transformation is through and through my work. Everyone is always becoming something other than themselves.” [9]

In March 2020 Simnett founded Home Cooking alongside Asad Raza (artist).[14]

• Faint (2012), recalls the story of Simnett's grandfather, who escaped death by firing squad by fainting.[12]
• Dog (2013)
• The Udder single channel HD video, 15 minutes, 30 seconds (2014) is the first in a trilogy of works that includes Blue Roses and Blood (both 2015). Shot on a robotic dairy farm,[7] it is a clinical account of bovine mastitis and a cautionary tale about female chastity[7] The Udder (2014) is a coming-of-age story set on a small, rural, roboticized dairy farm.[9]
• Blue Roses (2015) goes back and forth between a varicose vein operation and the creation of a cyborg cockroach[7][9] Blue Roses’ (2015) premiered summer 2015 at Comar on the Isle of Mull.[11]
• Blood ( 2015) recalls the history of Emma Eckstein and her treatment by Wilhelm Fliess.[11] It features Lali, an Albanian sworn virgin and references the Kanuni i Lekë Dukagjinit [11] Blood (2015)is a dreamlike depiction of a nasal surgery that references both a Freudian case study and the Kanun.[9]
• The Needle and The Larynx (2016) [1] shows the artist receiving botulinum toxin injection in her larynx to lower her voice.[9]
• Faint with Light (2016) is room-size installation that consists of a series of LED lights synchronized to a soundtrack of the artists hyperventilating until she faints[1] Faint with Light is an audio and light installation,[6] a 12-metre wall of bright LED lights[6] the artist deliberately induces syncope through hyperventilation.[6]
• Worst Gift (2017), a group of thuggish adolescent boys trapped in a dirty hospital are subjected to endless injections to their vocal chords.[9]
• Blood In My Milk (2018) is an immersive 73-minute, five-channel video installation,[3] made between 2014 and 2017[15][6] Its characters are surgeons, scientists, children and insects.[6] Blood In My Milk examines fears and (specific) phobias (Blood-injection-injury type phobia).[3]
• The Bird Game (2019) is a wicked fairy tale in which a loquacious and bloodthirsty crow, voiced by Joanne Whalley, lures six children to a secluded mansion and snares them in a sequence of deranged games. Scored by Oliver Coates, shot on 16mm film by Robbie Ryan (cinematographer), co-written by Marianna Simnett and Charlie Fox.[16]
• Dance, Stanley, Dance (2020) is a digitally animated watercolour inspired by found roadkill. The soundtrack was composed by Daniel Blumberg.[17]
• Tito's Dog (2020) was created during the 2020 global lockdowns, and confronts the artists own identity whilst also continuing her investigation into interspecies relationships.[17]
• Pillow (2020) is a music video for Daniel Blumberg romance shot during lockdown on 16mm, starring found roadkill in Malvern, UK. On a dark country road, a cast of squirrels and birds are struck down one by one by a passing car. Waking from the dead, their broken corpses gather in an erotic congregation beneath the earth.[18]

Simnett has had solo exhibitions at Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane,[19] Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem,[20] Kunsthalle Zürich,[15] Copenhagen Contemporary, Museum für Moderne Kunst,[21] New Museum in New York among others.

She has had group exhibitions at the Ming Contemporary Art Museum Shanghai, Serpentine Gallery in London.[12]

In 2014 she won the Jerwood Foundation's Jerwood/FVU Awards.[2] Jerwood commissioned The Udder (2014) and Blood (2015).[22]