If Every Girl Had a Diary

Copied Sadie Benning, If Every Girl Had a Diary, 1990, single-channel video, black and white, sound; 08:00 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Samuel and Blanche Koffler Acquisition Fund, 2015.8.2, © 1990, Sadie Benning

Artwork Details

Title
If Every Girl Had a Diary
Artist
Date
1990
Location
Not on view
Copyright
© 1990, Sadie Benning
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Samuel and Blanche Koffler Acquisition Fund
Mediums
Mediums Description
single-channel video, black and white, sound; 08:00 minutes
Classifications
Subjects
  • Allegory — life
  • Portrait female
Object Number
2015.8.2
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2015.8.2

Artwork Description

Sadie Benning recorded personal video diaries in the late 1980s and early 1990s while they were in high school. Using a toy PixelVision camera made by Fisher Price, Benning speaks to the machine as if they could make it understand. Their camera’s intimate field of view contrasts that of a cold and impersonal surveillance system, as they describe their feelings of alienation and the experience of self-discovery. These diaries are prescient works that portend YouTube and youthful digital culture with an extraordinary eloquence.

Watch This!: Revelations in Media Art, 2015