Dara Birnbaum: Reaction, the first retrospective of the artist’s work in the United States, presents a wide and in-depth view of Birnbaum’s extraordinary practice, charting the indelible contributions she has made to the global histories of video, Conceptual, performance, and appropriation art. The exhibition’s title, Reaction, echoes Birnbaum’s career-long position toward mass media: across form and method, she has persistently elaborated a vision of art as an empowering force to disrupt quiet acquiescence to authority. Including works from 1975 to 2011, Reaction focuses on major installations, many not seen in the US for years, as well as key single-channel videos and archival materials that expand on her singular approach to artmaking.
The accompanying catalogue, Dara Birnbaum: Reaction, examines key works to explore how they have illuminated the media and culture at their moment of making and how they continue to inform present critical thinking around “watching” technology and the dynamics of popular culture.
Dara Birnbaum
Reaction
Authors and Editors: Lauren Cornell, Tom Eccles, Elizabeth Chodos, Karen Kelly, Barbara Schröder, Erika Balsom, Giampaolo Bianconi, Jordan Carter, Alex Kitnick
Hardcover
Publisher: Dancing Foxes Press, 2022
ISBN 978-1-9549-4701-6
176 pages
7 ½ × 10 ½ in.
