Social studies: Social Engagements: Women's Video in the '80s Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City March 3-20
Afterimage, May 1987, v. 14, no. 10, pp. 18-19
A review of a recent show of socially engaged feminist video from the 1980s. The author critiques the limited perspective of the show, which focused on established American media makers and well-known work. She takes issue with the curator's presentation of a linear progress of feminist video from personal testimony to analyses of cultural oppression to work about contemporary global social issues, and rejects the categorization of the work into the categories of domestic life, art and politics, the media, and economic change. Issues of censorship, the parenting of young women, and class divisions are addressed. The author was disappointed by the lack of aesthetic or technological innovation represented in these video works.
ITEM 1987.094 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
Beneath My Skin – Cecelia Condit
Possibly in Michigan – Cecelia Condit
Leaving the Twentieth Century – Max Almy
Perfect Leader – Max Almy
Pop Pop – Dara Birnbaum
Damnation of Faust: Will-'O-The-Wisp (A Deceitful Grail) – Dara Birnbaum
Serafina Bathrick Reads Working Woman – Paper Tiger Television
The Maids! – Muriel Jackson
Women of Steel – Mon Valley Media
Secret Sounds Screaming: The Sexual Abuse of Children – Ayoka Chenzira
Trick or Drink – Vanalyne Green
Scenes from the Micro War – Sherry Milner
A Simple Case for Torture, Or How to Sleep at Night – Martha Rosler
Freedom of Information Tape 1: Jean Seberg – Margia Kramer
Joan Braderman Reads the National Enquirer – Paper Tiger Television
Just Because of Who We Are – Hera Media
The Trial of Tilted Arc – Shu Lea Cheang
Sign on a Truck – Jenny Holzer
Gotta Make This Journey: Sweet Honey in the Rock – Michelle Parkerson