Tony Allard + Kristine Diekman
Tony Allard and Kristine Diekman started working collaboratively in the early 1990s with Corpse and Mirror, a work that began as Allard’s performance monologue in 1991 and evolved over the next few years into the1996 single-channel video of the same name. A work that has been presented more than twenty-five times nationally and internationally, Corpse and Mirror “questions the ability of rational language to adequately describe and control extreme mental states.” The video is dreamlike in its imagery, moving from one scene to the next in a nonlinear manner. As the main character in the piece, Allard performs the narrative, combining elements of time, memory, and insanity, while Diekman combines her talents as videographer, producer, and video editor.
Allard and Diekman moved to California in 1997 shortly after receiving a Charlotte Street Award and thus may not be well known to the current Kansas City audience, though their work was widely presented in the area throughout the 1990s. They continue to work together and separately, producing work that is vital in both content and form. Unlike other artistic partners such as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Allard’s performances and Diekman’s video explorations are not dependent upon one another. When it makes sense to work together, they do—but it is not required. Their individual work continues to thrive and each maintains a voice. Their most recent collaborative project is Future Gen (2005), a complex media installation that relies strongly on their artistic collaboration and regional partnerships formed specifically for the project. Future Gen combines animation, video, audio, interviews, and drawing in an installation about the politics and cultural importance of agriculture, especially the corn industry in Iowa. Allard and Diekman’s work has evolved to encompass many formats, including net-based projects such as Downstream, a collaborative, ongoing net-based performance collective.
—Mark J. Spencer
Tony Allard + Kristine Diekman’s artist page from CSF’s “10″ (PDF)
To view the artists’ collaborative website, click here
