Decadent Nostalgia: Neo-Gothic Remakes and Reinterpretations in Contemporary Photography and Video Art

Abstract

This proposal wants to discuss about the remake of the Victorian and neo - Gothic style in photography and contemporary video. What are the roots of interest still seen in many contemporary artists of the Victorian period? What are the contents that artists today are investigating and how has this style evolved? As anticipated by Luca Beatrice in the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Pre-Raphaelites' and in his essay entitled ‘Gothland’, we intend to investigate the remake and the reinterpretation of these styles referring to a selection of photographers and videos that embody a sense of nostalgia for the historical and artistic context of Victorian times, as well as a whole series of movements that later influenced the style of contemporary music and art. As for the video-clips, for example, we cited CocoRosie, an American duo, especially, the video ‘Gallows’ of which they seem to deepen the remake of the Victorian style in reference to photography and Sopor Aeternus, a complex figure, artist, performer, musician and poet, still unknown but it is worth mentioning for the relationship with death, with ghosts and paranormal phenomena, arising and established their own interests in the Victorian era. With regard to contemporary photography and imagery derived from staged photography or contemporary photography tableaux vivants , according to the most recent theories of Horst Bredekemp of iconic schematic act and iconic replacement act, it deals with the theme of the photographic remake technically and stylistically, the reinterpretation of the character of Ophelia by John Everett Millais until the realization of scenarios of contemporary ruins where nature creates sudden hybrid figures with man and man becomes in turn inanimate matter.