CCS Bard: Closing of Dara Birnbaum’s Reaction

What: Closing of show

Who: Dara Birnbaum

When: Sunday, November 27

Where: Hessel Museum of Art

Details: Dara Birnbaum: Reaction, the first retrospective of Birnbaum’s work in the United States, charts a wide and in-depth view of the artist’s extraordinary and influential practice, marking the indelible contribution Birnbaum has made not only to American art but to the global histories of video, Conceptual, performance, and appropriation art. Reaction, the exhibition title, distills Birnbaum’s consistent position toward mass media: across media and method, Birnbaum has employed art as a “counter to force,” to “empower” myriad capacities for expression that oppose the passive acceptance of authority. Including works from 1975 to 2011, Reaction focuses on key single-channel videos and major installations, many not seen in the United States for years, including PM Magazine (1982), Damnation of Faust (1984), Will-O’-the-Wisp (1985), and Hostage (1994), among others. An accompanying presentation of archival material will illustrate her rigorous and interdisciplinary method, while illuminating the multifaceted contexts of her work in art, music, and politics. Encompassing drawings, sketches, notes, correspondences, clippings, photographs, and posters, this selection also touches on Birnbaum’s research and writings, plans for ambitious projects, and evidence of her ardent and evolving activism that traces across her life.

Exhibit is open June 25 – November 27 @ Hessel Museum of Art