Dominique Rey Erlking/Pilgrims

Dominique Rey is a photographer, painter, video artist and a performance artist whose work is marked by a fascination with the marginal figure. This publication documents two new series, one photographic and the other pictoral. In Erlking, Rey takes on a host of personas linked to the German and Scandinavian mythical creature that lures foolish travelers to their death. Drawing from psychoanalysis and the literay works of Angela Carter, Rey invokes personas in flux. Her painting series Pilgrims shows the influence of her involvement as a performer and attests to the intimate knowledge and experience she invests in her work. Recalling sideshow circus 'freaks' and 1950s burlesque, Pilgrims, explores notions of the 'unbeautiful' and how the unbeautiful becomes permissible, and even desirable, under the guise of performance and public display. Alterity is a central facet of Rey's practice. She chooses not to simply document, but to immerse herself within these peripheral cultures