The violent mother, father's sexual assault, husband's cheating, the french artist Niki's shadow of life turned into a dragon and snake, and she took a gun and shot a picture.

Shoot at his white plaster sculpture, followed by paint pouring out of a jar or plastic bag, like blood. Niki de Saint Phalle is a French woman with short hair and a delicate face, but she is not only cheerful, sloppy and violent, but also intoxicated when she picks up a gun to aim at her target.

What I shot was myself, my society and my injustice. What I shot, and the violence that lurked in me, when I shot, they stopped following me.
"I was shooting at myself, society with its naturals. I was shooting at my own violence and the violencece of the times. By shooting at my town violencece, i no longer had to carry it inside me.

- Niki de Saint Phalle


Pictures provided by the author


Pictures provided by the author

She is the only female representative in the "New Modernist" art genre. She had a mental breakdown and was admitted to a hospital for electroshock treatment, a woman who had been deranged by her unfaithful husband and his mistress and was considered hysterical, had been sexually assaulted by her father for years, had been tied up by a smug Catholic ism throughout her childhood, which was why she had shot at her work. She once described her shooting as "victimless violence" and "murder without a dead man", while she was a long-term victim of violence.

Escape from the constraints of the Cathedral: Sexual Assault by a Grumpy Mother and Father


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Niki is a descendant of the prominent Agnelli family , the head of italy's many industries , a banker of French descent with the title of " Count " , and his mother from the United States , basically born with a golden key , a typical " long, many names " Middle name, Catholic nobles. She was born in 1930, and until her 1953 mental breakdown, she experienced torture from her parents, her first husband and her marriage.


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Life is worry-free, not for ideological freedom, and Scorpio's Niki has been very rebellious in rejecting Catholic dogmas since he was a child. But she was not in vain to resist the family's expectations of her. In fact, she was violently treated by her mother, who was violent from an early childhood, and was often beaten, but also by Niki and her siblings, who were often beaten. Niki's childhood shadow, and his father. She once revealed that she had been sexually abused by her father for several years from the age of 11, but the secret was not revealed by her biography until she was 62. Niki was one of the longest-lived siblings, as the rest of the children committed suicide.

Her first husband, Harry Mattews, an American, and Harry, who grew up in New York, represented the spirit of American freedom (after all, American feminist art sprouted earlier than France), and they knew each other from an early age, and when Harry returned from military service, they fell in love and became a couple, then became a couple. Niki is only 18 years old, young, want to escape from the native family through this marriage? Or do you want to be redeemed through the love of your husband?

However, Niki's mother insisted that her daughter be religious and was forced to do so again in Catholic form. Harry's parents did not identify with Niki's Catholic background and, as a result, were financially supportive of them, and luckily Harry inherited a substantial inheritance and continued to live in Burchoa after their marriage.

"Bride" re-ego: Giving birth, cheating on husband and then collapsing


The Bride 1965-1992. Pictures provided by the author

After marriage Niki gave birth to her first daughter at the age of 21, a relatively young mother by modern standards. Marriage is not a constraint on the couple, but from marriage, Niki realized that she "didn't want" anything - a comfortable but unchanging life like her mother' and the "duty" of caring for children.


The Bride 1965-1992. Pictures provided by the author

Even though the couple were free to live a worry-free life in Europe, the marriage did not seem to be their meal, and the two had an affair, but Niki was 23 years old when she was sent to a psychiatric hospital in Nice, France, for assaulting one of her husband's mistresses. She was diagnosed with a mental disorder.

The sculpture "Bride", which resembles Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, a fictional character who, because of her fiance's repentance, has become an "disgusting" force for love, for people, for men, for society. Complaining woman, she wore a white wedding dress for years, but life-long unmarried, with a little nervous disorder. In fact, she is a marriage commitment, social stigma of the victim. Niki's first marriage, which began with understanding and ended in hysteria, was undoubtedly a failed marriage, but fortunately it was not the end of her, but her chance to be reborn.


Photo: Great Expectations Film Photo

"Nana" with different skin tones: a black chef whose modelling career and childhood depend

In 1965, Niki created the first "Nana" sculpture. What is Nana? The French slang for "Nana" means "chick" and also represents a general female. The first sculpture, "Black Venus," shows her interest in dark-skinned women. In fact, it may have something to do with her childhood, when her native family was afflicted, and she had a good relationship with the black chef in her family, even if the "master servant" relationship, the two men with a black and white color, had built relationships across class and race. On the contrary, seemingly well-educated white parents are nightmares in Niki's life.


Pictures provided by the author


Pictures provided by the author

Niki has created several Nana sculptures, all of them colorful, "childish art style" with a bit of ugly beauty, each of which is full, and if Nana's figure turns into a real woman, she is probably considered "too fat".

Niki, who was 16 to 19 years old, was a model and appeared on the cover of Vogue, Elle and LIFE magazines. Years later, she once said, "If I'm really thin like this, do you still like me?" The future of the rich female body sculpture "Nana", just to counter the Western aesthetic standards of women, but also like to overthrow or model shim, the use of ornamental, no voice of women set up.


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She has made numerous Nana sculptures, and they are displayed in different countries, some like chairs to allow visitors to sit down, some like hand-dancing, some with bricks or paper collages, some extremely large, and in the sculpture's "private" inside a large hole, which is enough for a group of people to visit.


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Overcoming fear in the body: snakes and dragons in her work

I was a young, angry woman in the 1960s, and I was angry with men and their power because they exploited the space that allowed me to develop freely. I want to rule the world and earn my salary. I'm angry about the parents who raised me as "marriage market goods." I want to prove that I can be a big man, that I really exist, that My shouting and protesting as a woman deserve sand. At that time, I was ready to fight.
In 1960 I was a very angry young woman. Angry at men and their power. I felt h-they had had robbed me-on-am free space in who i able yn mys. I wanted to conquer their world, to earn my own money. Angry with my parents who i felt hadd raised me for the marriage market. I wanted to show them that i was somebody, that i existed and that my voice and my scream of protest as a woman was an important. I was ready to kill.

- Niki de Saint Phalle


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The artificial weapons of guns and bullets were misappropriated by Niki into elements of the work because she hated the tools that symbolized patriarchy and war. Her work has natural, mysterious elements, in addition to all kinds of women, there are huge dragons and her favorite snake. In the sculpture "Dragon", we see the metal silver monster (actually a dragon) and countless pocket weapons. Who's the dragon shooter? It's Niki. The dragon represents her fear, and so does the snake.

Speaking of the relationship between women and snakes, can be traced back to the legend of Medusa - a sexually assaulted heavenly woman, anti-jealous woman turned into a snake-haired witch, Medusa represents the woman's anger, grievance and revenge, she can petrochemical staring at her eyes, the visitors are not good viewers, although the final beheading, but still many people's nightmares, Everyone is afraid of Medusa, but Medusa is a victim, not a perpetrator. And using the legend of Medusa, perhaps Niki retains the element of "snake" and her preference for snakes, perhaps because Ofussa is a symbol of "the angry, vengeful woman."

Joan Didion, an American writer, has been seeing "snake", the embodiment of her sense of sadness and helplessness, which is an illusion, and for her, a carrier of nightmares that haunts her all day long. Snakes are the fear we must have, in different forms around their daily routine, and for Niki, whether dragons or snakes, are a symbol of fear, but she retains the dragons and snakes, and putthem them in the works "Shooting Dragons" and "Tree of Life", the former tells us to be brave to overcome fear, The latter tells us that life must have two sides of light and darkness, like a snake-shaped life tree, with colorful colors on one side and black and white on the other.


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As long as love and active life

Having experienced an unusually violent childhood, Niki's work is undoubtedly a bit distorted, with color applications and styles much like the illusions seen in "thinking disorders", some may feel ugly or scary, but violence and distortion are really what makes Niki different. But it is not as if this, think, the gun fell into the hands of others, may become a tool of slaughter, war, but in her hands, but not because of the violence that has been experienced in the past, but into a tool of murder, but become the source of artistic flowering, this is not the anti-war movement, hippies in front of the gun hanging flowers, shouting love and peace synonym? It's just another expression.


Pictures provided by the author


Pictures provided by the author


Pictures provided by the author

The Niki exhibition seen in Hong Kong, in fact, the gun painting only a small part, and the curators did not make good use of space, venue and lighting to make better representation of the artist's work, perhaps the money, perhaps they think she is not important enough, or the people of Hong Kong are "very much" Sensitive feminist topics and works are so under-aware that they are so large that they ignore the possibility of curatorial development.

But in the underground lobby of Sha Tin Town Hall, although the lights are not suitable for art, there is a fun sculpture in the middle of the venue called "Dressing Room (Dressing or Mirror of Life). The female sculpture is rich in form and looks to be of a certain age, with exotic feathers, glittering fabrics and skulls on the make-up table, while the sculpture looks comfortably in the mirror, her hair grey, trance in looking back, with a calm air, in sharp contrast to Niki's other works.

The introduction card reads: "They deal with things about thepast; with a puppy, sitting quietly in front of the dresser; or enjoying a hearty meal alone in a coffee shop." Because they don't use it as anything, just love and live actively. "

Yes, whether it's old age, sex work, different skin color, different body shapes, or mentally traumatized women like Niki, in fact, as long as love and active life. We can imagine that art is the salvation of Niki, a woman who has been subjected to electric shock treatment, who, through art, has the possibility of ruling the world, and in her later years she may have eaten a quiet meal and recalled her own experiences along the way, scarred but alive.