"All Beauty and Blood and Tears" by Nan Goldin

Famous American photographer Nan. Nan Goldin (b.1953)'s latest documentary All The Beauty And The Bloodshe (2022) not only talks about her creation, but more importantly, how she spent four years interacting with the art world. Kim Sackler family confrontation.

Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, is famous for manufacturing American opioids and produces the highly addictive painkiller Oxycodone. Between 1999 and 2016, an estimated 453,300 people died from opioid use in the United States. As a user of the drug, Nan Goldin founded the organization PAIN in 2017, and then together with a group of members (actually only a few people) began to demonstrate and protest at the museum sponsored by the Sackler family. Starting from the Metropolitan of Art/Met in New York to the Louvre in Paris and the Guggenheim Museum... Actions have been taken one after another, but unfortunately the major museums have not responded... There is no such thing because the amount of sponsorship is too large and there is no one Want to offend the Sackler family.

It was not until 2019 that the incident finally made a breakthrough. The National Portrait Gallery in London turned down a £1 million grant from the Sackler family! ! This move was so extraordinary that even major world-class museums had to respond. Later, V&A, Tate, Serpentine, Louvre, Guggenheim... also followed suit. Many museums successively removed Sackler's name from their shelves and stopped accepting donations. (Of course, there are still museums, universities, and different institutions that still carry Sackler’s name today.) Art has always needed funds, and it will also face pressure from the economy and the powerful. How to choose between money and moral integrity? This is a major challenge for arts administration. But if you are engaged in art or education, these people who are regarded as the moral high ground cannot all say no to evil/ill-gotten gains. This is obviously a social problem. Finally, Purdue Pharma declared bankruptcy in 2021, and Nan Goldin really succeeded! ! !

Although this incident is not news, by looking at Nan Goldin through this documentary, we may be able to see what artists today can/will do besides creating, and we can also see the energy of a person. This can be said to be the story of David slaying the giant Goliath. Because in fact, in the art world, there are many people who are afraid of offending the powerful. Artists are a disadvantaged group to a certain extent. In the game between funders, collectors, museums, art institutions, and curators, how many people are willing to give up their jobs and come forward to speak out.

Returning to the perspective of photography creation, it is definitely an excellent experience to see Nan Goldin's photography on the big screen in a theater, because her early photos were displayed in the bar in the form of slideshows.

Another profound feeling after the scene is that everything taken in that era can no longer be restored. It is not the disappearance of the characters or the disappearance of the social atmosphere at that time, but the era of mobile phone photography, selfies and social interaction. In the age of media overflow, how the sitter responds to the camera, the relationship between the photographer and the sitter, the mode of photography, the expectations for photography, and how to view or use photography have completely changed, forever. There is no way to return to that relatively pure state.

Text: Ye Xiaoyan