The Blood-Red Heart of Johanna Darke
2006, 98:00, surround sound, english/french rent or purchase video exhibition catalogue from Amazon
The Blood-Red Heart of Johanna Darke is a portrait of a fictitious heroine named Johanna Darke. She enters a time capsule and is transported back in time from the Grey Nuns Order in Quebec Canada in 2003 to the French Resistance of 1939 Paris. Johanna rides on the waves of an exaggerated imagination wrought by her own compulsion and belief that she is Joan of Arc. The soundtrack is scored by musician and composer Eve Egoyan.
The video installation is accompanied by props from the production including: a turntable with brass funnel, 2 leather suitcases with vinyl records, 14 dresses, 3 pairs of shoes, black fiddler’s coat with red thread and pearl embroidery, white silk gloves, a fake bomb made of 12 candles wrapped in pink newspaper, deconstructed wireless radio in leather suitcase, small bronze cast of gothic cathedral, glass of milk, 2 red books and 27
plastic toy soldiers.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
4:3 floor to ceiling video projection
HD video projector
DVD player
2 speakers and 1 subwoofer or headphones
sofas and props (provided by artist)
EXHIBITIONS AND PUBLICATIONS
2009 The Blood-Red Heart of Johanna Darke, solo exhibition, Trinity Square Video for Images Festival, Toronto, Canada
2006 The Blood-Red Heart of Johanna Darke, solo exhibition, Archive Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2006 La Grande Expérience: The Blood-Red Heart of Johanna Darke, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, MaRS Building Atrium, Toronto, Canada
2006 Fall program Projections: The Blood-Red Heart of Johanna Darke, solo exhibition and publication, The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Canada
2005 Resistance, solo exhibition and catalogue, Southern Alberta Art Gallery [SAAG], Lethbridge, Canada
2005 Rencontres internationales, The Swedish Cultural Centre, Paris, France and Berlin, Germany
2005 The Blood-Red Heart of Johanna Darke, solo exhibition, UQAM/ICI, Montréal, Canada
2004 The Blood-Red Heart of Johanna Darke, solo exhibition and brochure, Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, France
CREDITS
Performers
Adrienne Le Coutour – Johanna Darke
Benjamin Nemerofsky Ramsay – Etienne/Pierrot
Anna-Lena Johanssson Levérrier – Evil Nun
Rachelle Puryear – Maqui 1
Håkan Lövgren – Maqui 2
Eve Egoyan – Johanna’s Doppelganger
Linda Lundin – Young Maqui 1
Mia Samuelsson – Young Maqui 2
Andrew Forster – Gestapo Man 1
Benoit Coussy – Gestapo Man 2
Lewis DeSoto – Gestapo Man 3
Gunilla Josephson – Gestapo Woman
Editor Aleesa Cohene
Music Eve Egoyan, Compositions for Piano and Harpsi- chord
Wardrobe Cinéfilm (Paris, France), Maria Lundin (Courage My Love, Toronto, Canada), Salvation Army (Stockholm, Sweden)
Locations Paris: Cité Internationale des Arts, Centre Culturel Canadien, Centre Culturel Suédois, Notre Dame Cathedral, The Paris Catacombs, Père Lachaise Cemetery, Gare du Nord
Montmartin Sur Mer, Normandie, France
Hauteville Sur Mer, Normandie, France
