Netherlands Patron Circle

Marianna SimnettMy Broken Animal, 2019–2020

Outset is delighted to have supported the first solo exhibition of Marianna Simnett in the Netherlands at the Frans Hals Museum entitled My Broken Animal.

My Broken Animal presented a new and an existing film, an installation and sculptures by London-based artist Marianna Simnett (1986). At the heart of Simnett’s practice is her preoccupation with the body and its potential for transformation. Simnett’s bodies are mutants and hybrids, playing dangerous games to deadly limits. They faint, undergo medical procedures, die and come back to life. Unflinching and raw Simnett dares to uncover the parts of ourselves that usually remain concealed.

My Broken Animal disregards the oppositions that have been inscribed onto our perception of bodies: male versus female, sick versus healthy, animal versus human. Drawing on fairy tales, and myths and through her own idiosyncratic storytelling, Simnett approaches conventions of gender, species, and our relationship to others, as not something given, but something to be found. My Broken Animal shows how deeply rooted Simnett’s work is in contemporary issues

The Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem combines its traditional 17th-century collection with a diverse and cutting-edge collection of contemporary art. The museum presents the collections in two separate locations, but also alongside each other in a transhistorical context. By doing this the museum generates a space for the development of new narratives, but also relevant reinterpretations of existing ones. Therefore, the Frans Hals Museum resonates with the core values of Outset.

My Broken Animal was on show at the Frans Hals Museum (location HAL) in Haarlem from November 16, 2019, until February 23, 2020.