BRUCE NAUMAN, GOOD BOY BAD BOY, 1985
In Good Boy Bad Boy, two monitors are displayed at head height on pedestals. The head and shoulders of a young black man appear on one; on the other is an older white woman. They both speak the same one hundred phrases, which are the repeated conjugation of the verb 'to be' linked with the term 'good boy'…
APRIL DAWN ALISON, POLAROIDS
April Dawn Alison, the private persona of an Oakland-based commercial photographer known to family, friends, and neighbors as Alan Schaefer (1941–2008). Approximately 9,200 Polaroids were made over the course of more than thirty years, and discovered upon the artist’s death…
HAND TO MOUTH, PATTY CHANG, 2000
“Hand to Mouth”, a video from 2000, was made before Chang extended her vocabulary beyond the performance oriented explorations of her own body. In the video, she appears clad in a simple business suit, cheering encouragingly while simultaneously swallowing water and helium squished into her mouth by an invisible performer outside the picture frame…
BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR, 1972
Behind the Green Door is a 1972 American feature-length pornographic film, widely considered one of the genre's "classic" pictures and one of the films that ushered in The Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984). Featuring Marilyn Chambers, who became a mainstream celebrity, it was one of the first hardcore films widely released in the United States and the first feature-length film directed by the Mitchell brothers…
JEN DAVIS: ELEVEN YEARS
"In this body of work, I deal with my insecurities about my body image and the direct correlation between self-perception and the way one is perceived by others. Photography is the medium that I use to tell my story through life, an outlet for revealing my thoughts and opinions about the society in which we live. A society that dictates beauty based on ones physical appearance…
ADRIAN PIPER: WHAT IT’S LIKE, WHAT IT IS #3, 1991
Adrian Piper’s What It’s Like, What It Is #3 (1991), a large-scale mixed-media installation addressing racist stereotypes. Consisting of a gleaming white amphitheater with a nine-foot-tall column at its center and reflective mirrors surrounding its upper periphery, the installation’s sleek geometry recalls a work of Minimalist sculpture…
LAURA AGUILAR, THREE EAGLES FLYING, 1990
“Three Eagles Flying is the product of the last ten years of my life that presents an evolutionary journey of mind and spirt leading to the cultural identity that today I call, Me. In the struggle to gain self-knowledge and acceptance, the often-oppressive judgements of others have had a significant influence on my developing identity…
ZANELE MUHOLI: SOMNYAMA NGONYAMA, HAIL THE DARK LIONESS, 2018
“I am producing this photographic document to encourage individuals in my community to be brave enough to occupy spaces―brave enough to create without fear of being vilified… . To teach people about our history, to rethink what history is all about, to reclaim it for ourselves―to encourage people to use artistic tools such as cameras as weapons to fight back.”
TONGUES UNTIED, 1989, MARLON RIGGS
Made, in director Marlon Riggs’s own words, to “shatter the nation’s brutalizing silence on matters of sexual and racial difference,” this radical blend of documentary and performance defies the stigmas surrounding Black gay sexuality in the belief that, as long as shame prevails, liberation cannot be possible….