DOROTHY IANNONE

“The narrator, who is meant to represent all women, addresses her song to all men. There is a big difference between “I Was Thinking Of You” and the triptych “Follow Me. “ This time, the woman in the middle painting of the box is standing alone. That's true. She's positioned next to the monitor where my face appears. She's a gigantic figure, and I suppose she represents the White Goddess. The figures on the panels to either side of her represent contemporary man and woman. She isn't really alone, though. She's standing among her people. (…) I wrote this text in 1976 and somehow it became a song. The ideas in the text had existed in another form in my mind for many years. The film was made to transmit these ideas and sentiments on different levels, and the painting on the box communicated them through still different means. (…) I wanted to show my sweetness. It comes out seductive, maybe. That's true this sweet woman is also a sexual being but sweetness is seductive. I find sweetness irresistible. There's no harm in sweetness. It is, in itself, loving and unafraid of its vulnerability.”

Dorothy Iannone, from Oliver Koerner von Gustorf, Sweetness is Seductive, in Follow Me, exhibition catalogue, September 2008, Berlin