Holy Fools
1/9/2019-2/3/2019
A solo exhibition presented by
“RUBBER FACTORY is pleased to present Holy Fools, a solo exhibition by Ondine Viñao. This nine-channel video installation engages with Bruce Nauman’s central ideas and formal strategies from Clown Torture (1987), reinterpreting them through the lens of female youth and its inherent trauma.”
Bruce Nauman’s Clown Torture (1987) presents six looping video sequences of a clown trapped in relentless, self-inflicted torment. Each iteration embodies a distinct archetype - the Emmett Kelly dumb clown, the French Baroque clown, the traditional show clown, and the jester. The videos are loud and unsettling, forcing discomfort onto both subject and viewer. In ‘Clown with Water Bucket’, for example, the clown repeatedly opens a door only to be doused by a bucket of water each time.
Holy Fools emerged from conversations with three female performers I work with closely. Through collective journaling, they shared personal experiences - sexual abuse, fraught mother-daughter relationships, and the pressures of performing femininity. The clown became a way for us to revisit these experiences through a symbolic role that gave us distance from the events themselves.
Here, I reinterpret Nauman’s clown as a Holy Fool - one who “feigns madness to reveal the madness of the world.” Just as the traditional Holy Fool exposes truth through absurdity, our clowns navigate the uneasy space between humor and discomfort to confront what we are conditioned to ignore.
Press
Garage Magazine - February 2019
Ondine Viñao’s Holy Fools reviewed. Read it here
Office Magazine - January 2019
Ondine Viñao interviewed in discussion of Holy Fools exhibition. Read it here
Document Journal - January 2019
Ondine Viñao interviewed in discussion of Holy Fools exhibition. Read it here
Observer - January 2019
Ondine Viñao interviewed in discussion of Holy Fools exhibition. Read it here
ARTnews - January 2019
Ondine Viñao’s Holy Fools featured in Pictures at an Exhibition. Read it here
Bedford & Bowery - January 2019
Ondine Viñao‘s Holy Fools highlighted. Read it here
Something Curated - January 2019
Ondine Viñao‘s Holy Fools featured in 6 New York exhibits not to miss. Read it here
BlackBook - January 2019
Ondine Viñao interviewed in discussion of Holy Fools exhibition. Read it here