Living Inside

Sadie Benning, Living Inside, 1989, single-channel video, black and white, sound; 05:10 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Samuel and Blanche Koffler Acquisition Fund, 2015.8.4, © 1989, Sadie Benning
Copied Sadie Benning, Living Inside, 1989, single-channel video, black and white, sound; 05:10 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Samuel and Blanche Koffler Acquisition Fund, 2015.8.4, © 1989, Sadie Benning

Artwork Details

Title
Living Inside
Artist
Date
1989
Location
Not on view
Copyright
© 1989, Sadie Benning
Credit Line
Museum purchase through the Samuel and Blanche Koffler Acquisition Fund
Mediums
Mediums Description
single-channel video, black and white, sound; 05:10 minutes
Classifications
Subjects
  • Allegory — life
Object Number
2015.8.4
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2015.8.4

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.

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