Marking the occasion of a new comprehensive catalog and retrospective on the prolific ouevre of Dara Birnbaum, a selection of the artist’s early performance-videos were screened at Electronic Arts Intermix on March 30th. Editors of the new publication, Karen Kelly and Barbara Schröder introduced these early black-and-white, performance-based videos, which preceded her single channel works. Unlike the later works, which appropriated and critiqued mass media and TV culture, these direct, unmediated, and tautological performance-based works shed new insight by introducing themes recurring throughout her later work.

“In many of these works, Birnbaum appears on camera as the performer, investigating through the body intense emotional or psychological manifestations while also foregrounding the relation of the camera/viewer to the subject/performer. Such works reveal an unexpected link to the body-art and performance-video practices of artists such as Vito Acconci, Joan Jonas, and Bruce Nauman. Other early works incorporate disjunctive tactics and pop-cultural content, pointing to Birnbaum’s later editing strategies and engagement with television as source material.” (EAI program notes)

Following the screening, Birnbaum appeared in conversation with Lori Zippay, Executive Director of EAI, and participated in discussion with the audience.
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The question that resonated most with me was from EAI’s Josh Kline, who asked the artist how she had conceptualized and weighed her role as a director in these early works. Since these works rest on a combination of the technical parameters of the cameras and the concept, he wondered to what extent she had directed the various players. Surprisingly, she admitted very little responsibility, saying that it was mostly a collaborative effort with her making aesthetic decisions.

Ladies Birnbaum and Zippay will also be in conversation at White Columns April 14th for the Second installment of the Skowhegan Conversations Series, (an ongoing series of collaborative dialogs between Skowhegan and White Columns)

The retrospective that was the impetus for the new catalog, is being exhibited at S.M.A.K., Ghent, in 2009 and Museu Serralves, Porto, in 2010. Hopefully after those two venues, it will come to New York!