SHIKEITH, STILL WATERS RUN DEEP, 2021
INSTALLATION, FILM Megan Christiansen INSTALLATION, FILM Megan Christiansen

SHIKEITH, STILL WATERS RUN DEEP, 2021

Shikeith explores how Black queer re-making is a sacred space and practice in his two-part installation, still waters run deep / fall in your ways (2021). Using poetry, historical narratives, ambient recordings of children's rhymes, shades of blue, dance, and organic elements such as water, Shikeith maps Black men's negotiations of intimacy and routes toward freedom beyond architectural and societal constraints…

Read More
JUDITH BARRY, IMAGINATION, 1991
FILM, INSTALLATION Megan Christiansen FILM, INSTALLATION Megan Christiansen

JUDITH BARRY, IMAGINATION, 1991

An androgynous head is projected as if contained within a minimalist cube. Sounds of the head slowly breathing fill the space. The head is serene, waiting. Suddenly a substance pours over it from all sides, drenching it in what appears to be a bodily fluid. The spectator wants to turn away but can not, the gaze is compelled through the invocation of the scopic drive...

Read More
SHELLY SILVER, WE, 1990
FILM, PORNOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen FILM, PORNOGRAPHY Megan Christiansen

SHELLY SILVER, WE, 1990

Even as the text instructs us otherwise, it is impossible not to read We's two images - that is, to respond to their symbolic quality, their suggestiveness. In a stream of associations, the rhythmic flow of people on the left becomes an ejaculation while the rhythmic hand on the right marks detachment, self-centeredness...

Read More
THERESA HAK KYUNG CHA, MOUTH TO MOUTH, 1975
FILM Megan Christiansen FILM Megan Christiansen

THERESA HAK KYUNG CHA, MOUTH TO MOUTH, 1975

English and Korean words appear on the screen, a mouth forms the shape of an "O," then opens and closes. Is this the beginning of language? In this early videotape, Cha isolates and repeats a simple, physical act — a mouth forming the eight Korean vowel graphemes — so that this ordinary action becomes something primal and riveting…

Read More
RASHID JOHNSON, THE NEW BLACK YOGA, 2011
FILM Megan Christiansen FILM Megan Christiansen

RASHID JOHNSON, THE NEW BLACK YOGA, 2011

New York-based Rashid Johnson explores complex cultural identities and issues relevant to being African American in the present day. The artist’s recent ventures in film make use of the medium’s ability to express meaning through movement…

Read More
FRANCES STARK, NOTHING IS ENOUGH, 2012
FILM Megan Christiansen FILM Megan Christiansen

FRANCES STARK, NOTHING IS ENOUGH, 2012

Nothing is Enough consists of documented text fragments from Frances Stark’s online chat with a young Italian man, ranging from contemplative, self-reflective discussions to cybersex…

Read More
SHARON HAYES, RICERCHE: TWO, 2020
FILM Megan Christiansen FILM Megan Christiansen

SHARON HAYES, RICERCHE: TWO, 2020

Ricerche is a 5 part video series that steps off Pier Paolo Pasolini’s brilliant 1963 film, Comizi d’Amore, to stage a contemporary inquiry into the “sexual problem” in the United States…

Read More
GILLIAN WEARING, 2 INTO 1, 1997
FILM Megan Christiansen FILM Megan Christiansen

GILLIAN WEARING, 2 INTO 1, 1997

The short video projection 2 into 1 (1997) features a mother and her twin sons talk about each other, one generation lip-synching the dubbed words of the other…

Read More
BARBARA HAMMER, SUPERDYKE, 1975
FILM Megan Christiansen FILM Megan Christiansen

BARBARA HAMMER, SUPERDYKE, 1975

Superdyke is a gem from early liberation days. Influenced by feminism and lesbian militancy, Hammer’s films are politically pointed, bearing witness to lesbian empowerment and visibility, and formally sophisticated, fully cognizant of experimental film history…

Read More
PEGGY AHWESH, PHILOSOPHY IN THE BEDROOM, 1993
FILM Megan Christiansen FILM Megan Christiansen

PEGGY AHWESH, PHILOSOPHY IN THE BEDROOM, 1993

A home-movie paean to the Marquis de Sade, Philosophy in the Bedroom plumbs the depths of boudoir small talk. In the first part, a newly-acquainted odd couple discuss desire—and lack thereof—over a bag of potato chips. In the second part, a recumbent woman describes her partner and herself as "the John and Yoko of the '90s."…

Read More
ANDREA FRASER, UNTITLED, 2003
FILM Megan Christiansen FILM Megan Christiansen

ANDREA FRASER, UNTITLED, 2003

The central action in Untitled has Fraser and a male client of her US gallery meet for a session of sex and video recording in a New York hotel room. This is the part of the work that suggests an archetypal narrative…

Read More