Nan Goldin's 'Sirens' exhibition at Marian Goodman Gallery confronts opioid crisis and queer history

Nan Goldin's exhibition 'Sirens' at Marian Goodman Gallery in London runs through 11 January 2020, featuring new video works alongside newly editioned prints from her seminal series 'The Ballad of Sexual Dependency' (1986) and 'The Other Side' (1993). The show includes the video 'Salome' (2019), a camp homage with appropriated film clips, and 'Memory Lost' (2019), a shadowy video/photo essay reflecting Goldin's personal struggle with opioid addiction after being prescribed Oxycontin for a hand injury. Goldin founded the activist group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) to protest institutions accepting Sackler Foundation donations, leading the National Portrait Gallery in London to reject a £1 million grant in 2019. A glass cabinet at the gallery entrance displays P.A.I.N. protest materials, linking the exhibition to her recent activism. The exhibition juxtaposes themes of queer desire and fragility, featuring photographs of transgender artist Greer Lankton from 1985, who died from an overdose in 1996, and footage of model Donyale Luna, who died of a heroin overdose in 1979. Goldin's work documents the New York demimonde of the 1980s, including lesbians, gays, transsexuals, and drag queens. The upstairs gallery presents large-scale depopulated landscape prints, offering a contrasting visual escape. The exhibition reflects Goldin's dual roles as pioneering artist and crusading activist following her addiction recovery in 2017.