Ridderhof Martin Gallery
March 16- April 29, 2016
Opening Reception: Wednesday, March 16 5-7pm
Using artist and theorist Martha Rosler’s influential essay, “Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment” (1985-86)[1] as a framework, this exhibition explores feminist video art of the 1980s.
The utopian moment for Rosler is the mythologized birth of video art in the late 1960s and the early formally experimental videos. Apart from the apocryphal beginnings of video, however, the breadth of this art form and subsequent video art is paid little attention in standard art histories. By focusing on five video artworks by Cecelia Condit, Ximena Cuevas, Maxi Cohen, Mona Hatoum and Ericka Beckman, Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment seeks to counter the prevailing histories of video and art with the myriad of experiences and formal languages employed by these artists.
The exhibition will also feature a special screening evening on Wednesday, April 20th from 7-8:30 with two additional media artworks, Damnation of Faust Trilogy (video, 1983-1987) by Dara Birnbaum and Mayhem (film, 1987) by Abigail Child.
Ximena Cuevas, Antes de la Televisión (Before Television), 1983. Image copyright of the artist, courtesy of Video Data Bank, www.vdb.org
A special thanks to the cooperation of the Video Data Bank and the Electronic Arts Intermix
Opening Reception
[1] Martha Rosler, “Video Shedding the Utopian Moment,” was originally delivered as a talk, “Shedding the Utopian Moment: The Museumization of Video,” at the conference “Vidéo ‘84” (Université de Québec à Montréal), and published in René Payant, ed., Vidéo (Montréal; Artexte, 1986). It also was published in Block (London), no. 11 (1985-86).
