Sirens (2019–2021) is Nan Goldin’s first film made entirely from found footage. She conceived of the work as an homage to Donyale Luna, who is often cited as the first black supermodel. A cultural icon in 1960s New York, Luna died from a heroin overdose in 1979 at the age of 33. In Greek mythology, sirens are the nymphlike creatures whose alluring songs draw sailors to their tragic deaths on rocky island shores. Through its hypnotic progression of sumptuous images, Sirens associates the mythological creatures’ seductive song and the beauty of the female body with the sensuality and ecstasy of a drug high. Composed of short clips from thirty films – including the 1969 movie Satyricon; works by Kenneth Anger, Lynee Ramsay, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Federico Fellini, and Michelangelo Antonioni; Andy Warhol’s “Screen Tests” of Luna; and footage from a 1988 London rave – and with a score by the composer Mica Levi, Sirens creates a filmic corollary to the seductive euphoria of drugs. While the film presents a glamorous and romantic rendition of the pleasure of being high, its title alludes to the possible peril of drug use and the difficulty of escaping its grasp.


"I think what is striking for any person who has a background in artists’ film or experimental cinema, is that you open a completely new, unexpected direction of treating footage. […] The way you interpret it is somehow related to a specific idea of skin. […] Because it’s about a new layer, a different way of treating surfaces as if they were skin, the whole turns out very fragile, very sensitive, very alive, and astonishingly authentic” - From You Dance Better When You’re High: A conversation between Nan Goldin & Andrea Lissoni, published in This Will Not End Well, by Steidl and Moderna Museet, 2022

2019-2021 - Single-channel video; 16 min. 1 sec.

Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian.