An intimate conversation with alt-rock bassist Melissa Auf der Maur — of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins fame — as she walks us through Even the Good Girls Will Cry: A ’90s Rock Memoir (Da Capo) and shares images from Melissa Auf der Maur: My ’90s Rock Photographs (DelMonico Books), the catalog to her exhibition at Art Gallery of Ontario that doubles as a photographic love letter to the last analog decade. 

As the bass player for the iconic ’90s alternative rock bands Hole and Smashing Pumpkins, Melissa Auf der Maur toured the world, documenting life backstage, onstage, and in the crowd. She instinctively turned the camera on herself as the most intimately available subject, as informed by her studies at Concordia University and the self-portraits of Francesca Woodman. By the time she joined Hole’s Live Through This world tour, a roll of 35mm film was on the rider at every venue. Her daily practice, continually documenting herself and her surroundings, expanded to include self-timers and cable releases for mid-performance snapshots.

This dedication resulted in an archive of over 10,000 photographs that go behind the scenes of rock-and-roll stardom — playing with Courtney Love’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain; hanging out with Pavement, Sonic Youth, and Beck; riding in a limousine with Drew Barrymore; and idling time on the set of the music video for “Celebrity Skin.” Spin Magazine hired Auf der Maur to document Lollapalooza 1995 and the Tibetan Freedom Concert of 1996. Gritty and edgy, playful yet deeply personal, Auf der Maur’s intimate photographs celebrate the independent spirit of the ’90s and offer an insider’s view of the decade before smartphones and digital recording software. Through an extensive curatorial selection of more than 200 photographs, her memories create a moving self-portrait of a young artist living through the ’90s alternative music scene, and a time capsule for Generation X.

Can’t make the event? Order Melissa Auf der Maur’s books here, and we’ll get them signed for you.

About the Artist

Melissa Auf der Maur’s (born 1972) indie band Tinker had just opened for Smashing Pumpkins when Billy Corgan recommended her to Courtney Love as the new bassist for Hole’s grief-marked Live Through This world tour, beginning soon after the deaths of both Kurt Cobain and Kristen Pfaff. She played on the group’s Grammy-nominated album Celebrity Skin. After leaving Hole, Auf der Maur joined Smashing Pumpkins as the bassist for their farewell tour from 1999 to 2000. Following the release of a few solo albums, she moved to Hudson, NY, became a mother, and cofounded the multidisciplinary art center Basilica Hudson.

_{Core support for the Department of Public Programs is provided by the WLS Spencer Foundation.}

_{Major support is generously provided by the national Leadership in Art Museums (LAM) initiative funded by the Alice L. Walton Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and Pilot House Philanthropy; the Feigenbaum Foundation; and the Ruth E. Proud Charitable Trust.}

_{Support is also provided by Anonymous (2); the Avangrid Foundation, in partnership with Berkshire Gas Company; the Robert Lehman Foundation; Berkshire Bank; Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation; and MountainOne.}