Anne Pigalle - Polaroïds

Avec son nom de quartier interlope et ses chansons qui magnifient ce même quartier de nostalgie et d'aventures douteuses, Anne Pigalle restera comme une personnalité mystérieuse déboulant à contre-courant des modes électro-indus et punk en 85. Avec sa voix lasse et précieuse, il lui aura suffi d'un album, Everything could be so perfect, cornaqué par le très en vogue Trevor Horn de ZTT, pour insuffler à la new wave un langoureux parfum de chanson rétro. Et puis plus rien.
Je découvre par le net qu'une nouvelle compilation de chansons, Amerotica, semble actuellement disponible en édition limitée sur son site. Et j'apprends par ailleurs qu'Anne Pigalle a continué sa carrière à l'étranger (en Angleterre, suivie d'une période aux US), développant ses talents d'auteure, de photographe, de peintre et chanteuse.


Anne Pigalle is a parisian chanteuse, polaroid photographer, and painter, poet, writer, actress and creator of the amerotic salons. She grew up in Paris. She has been compared to Piaf, Dietrich and West. She is running a new cabaret club night in London called Spirit of Ecstasy. She has been intensely working since her first album on all kind of diverse material and collaborated with many greats while living in America. Amerotica is a new compilation of songs released on her website as a limited edition.
Anne Pigalle uses the Polaroid camera to create unique objects of desire. Born out of a project to entice back a previous lover, Pigalle elaborately ordains her nude body and performs to her audience; the camera. Primarily, the polaroids act as snap shots of her performance, but Pigalle then returns and intricately decorates each image until they become reminiscent of feminine religious icons. She uses a mixture of kitsch materials including nail polish, glitter, feathers and trinkets, all of which create this object quality of decadent sexual desire.
The use of costumes and masks by Pigalle can be linked back to the surrealist artist's Claude Cahun and Cindy Sherman; but rather than questioning her gender, she celebrates it. She playfully adopts poses with a narcissistic, self-sufficient sexuality, whilst mimicking classical female art icons, such as Botticelli's Venus.
The polaroid format, coupled with the frequent appearance of velvety curtains and rich red hues in the staging of the images, introduces a voyeuristic, peepshow element to the images. Throughout the work there is a sense of nostalgic burlesque, harking back to the Pigalle district of Anne's native Paris.
Anne Pigalle is best known as an inimitable and compelling performer. She was raised in Paris and moved to London during the punk scene. In the 1990s she moved to Los Angeles to work as a photographer and actor. She has since returned to London to perform and work on her autobiography, her singing and photography.