If Every Girl Had a Diary

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
  • Portrait female
  • Allegory — life
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

Works by this artist (3 items)

David Beck, MVSEVM, 2006, mixed media construction, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Thelma and Melvin Lenkin, 2006.8, © 2006, David Beck
MVSEVM
Artist
Date2006
mixed media construction
On view
David Beck, Dodos en Suite, 2010, bronze, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist in honor of Elizabeth Broun, 2016.53A-G
Dodos en Suite
Artist
Date2010
bronze
On view
David Beck, Movie Palace, 1990, mixed media construction, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Ken and Judy Siebel and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2000.27
Movie Palace
Artist
Date1990
mixed media construction
Not on view

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