Beyond Black Boxes and Gender Barriers: A Year of Time-Based Media at SAAM
Still from Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust
When I arrived as the curator of time-based media art at SAAM just over a year ago, I had an unusual challenge. The two galleries that have traditionally showcased this collection were being absorbed by ambitious special exhibitions that needed these spaces to fully tell their stories (first, Trevor Paglen: Sites Unseen, and now the lauded Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975). Luckily, the artists I focus on often create work not only for galleries, but for theaters and public spaces, with videos or interactives that can be projected or played on screens of various sizes. I decided to embrace this challenge as an opportunity to see how else time-based work could be featured throughout SAAM’s building and throughout the year.
