THEY are images which reflect an extraordinary moment in time and the ways people and communities changed during the pandemic.
People wearing masks as they shopped or went for solitary walks became a familiar sight as the country lived with lockdown after lockdown. It was this period in all our lives which proved to be the inspiration for documentary filmmaker, singer and author Marianne Dissard.
And they will now go on display when she opens her first UK solo exhibition in the city today at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography in Glassford Street.
Dissard found herself living alone in Kent with her singing tour cancelled and a long winter ahead.
With a backdrop of the pandemic and Brexit playing out in the background, the French-born chanteuse turned to street photography to make sense of her immediate world.
Marianne Dissard says she has been inspired by her new home city and is already working on another project. Photograph by Colin Mearns.
Over the course of the next 18 months, Dissard went on to assemble a clear-sighted snapshot of life in the corner of England’s south east coast known as the Isle of Thanet, which she then called home.
However, after just months of living in Glasgow, she is already thinking of her next project it may draw inspiration from the heart of the city – the River Clyde.
“I have only been in Glasgow a few months, but felt so welcomed here and very much at home already. And inspired. So much so, I’m now working on a new series inspired by the River Clyde, from source to sea,” said Dissard.
While Glasgow might be her home now, she moved from the US to England two years ago and it offered her a place to create.
Marianne Dissard pictured at The Glasgow Gallery of Photography in Glassford Street, Glasgow. Photograph by Colin Mearns.
The focus of the exhibition, Thanet, which hasn’t been an actual island since the Middle Ages, is made up of the seaside towns of Ramsgate, Margate and Broadstairs, as well as several smaller surrounding villages.
However, Dissard said the area is so close to her homeland, “on a clear day you can see the coast of France across the English Channel.”
Dissard lived in Tucson, Arizona, for three decades before moving to the UK. She relocated from Kent to Glasgow in early 2022. The multi-talented artist is now set to stage her first UK solo exhibition, featuring her Thanet photographs in the city.
On a Good Day, You Can See France opens at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography on Glassford Street and runs until Thursday, August 25.
Images of how daily life changed during the pandemic will now feature in a Glasgow exhibition
The opening of Dissard’s exhibition and the launch of an accompanying book in the city centre gallery will take place tomorrow to coincide with the start of the annual Merchant City Festival.
Her photographs, taken during daily walks around where she lived, from October 2020 until the start of the mass vaccination programme in early 2021, include surreal urban landscapes, a decimated high street, and unsettling portraits of residents.
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Given the artist’s background as documentary filmmaker, photographer and performer, she is planning an immersive multi-media approach to the Glasgow show in the form of Planet Thanet.
Planet Thanet will see Dissard take over the two floors of the gallery to create an installation building on the themes of the exhibition. For this Glasgow show, Dissard will be working once again with her friend and long-term collaborator, Paris-based set designer Bastien Forestier.
He has worked on countless theatre and opera designs in Europe, as well as the recent Taschen edition of Peter Lindbergh’s On Fashion Photography for a series of photographs with Ukrainian supermodel turned actress, Milla Jovovich.
There will also be a weekly series of live performances by Thanet artists; including Dissard, Lunatraktors, a “broken folk” duo from Margate, Kent, and spoken word and music performance from Megan Garrett-Jones.
Marianne Dissard captured images in Kent and will no go on display in Glasgow
On Saturday, August 20, Dissard will discuss On a Good Day, You Can See France at a special evening event in the gallery. She will also read from her powerful 2019 memoir, Not Me. Described as “viscerally, brutally honest”, the book is an account of Dissard’s struggle with bulimia while sustaining a successful career as a touring singer songwriter.
“This won’t be a typical exhibition of photography,” Dissard said. “My friend Bastien and I will be using stage design and narrative techniques honed during my most recent public installations in Kent and Paris.
“Our installation will make use of a mix of standard gallery frames, cardboard frames, new and recycled posters, large direct-to-metal prints, video and various urban and coastal materials.
Music has also been important to Dissard and after a degree in film production from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, she moved to Tucson, Arizona, initially pursuing a career as a documentary film director. Encouraged by Calexico’s Joey Burns to sing, she recorded several albums of original music in Tucson, her first, L’entredeux, composed by Burns himself.
Images were captured by Marianne Dissard during the pandemic
For a decade, she toured worldwide backed by members of Giant Sand, XIXA, Calexico, and Orkesta Mendoza.
Her latest album, Rappel, produced by Raphael Mann, was released in April 2022. She is joined on upcoming 2022 European theatrical dates by Glasgow’s Andy Alston of Del Amitri on keyboard and Orange Juice’s James Kirk on guitar.
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