Sadie Benning facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Sadie Benning |
|
|---|---|
Benning in 2011
|
|
| Background information | |
| Born | April 11, 1973 Madison, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | video maker, artist, musician, professor |
| Associated acts | Le Tigre |
Sadie T. Benning (born April 11, 1973) is an American artist. They work with many art forms, including video, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and sound. Sadie Benning makes unique films and art that explore ideas like privacy, play, and who we are. They became a well-known artist when they were a teenager. This was thanks to their short films, which were like "video diaries" made with a special camera.
Sadie Benning also helped start the American electronic rock band Le Tigre. They were a member of the band from 1998 to 2001.
Contents
About Sadie Benning
Early Life and Art Beginnings
Sadie Benning was born on April 11, 1973, in Madison, Wisconsin. Their mother raised them in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sadie's father, James Benning, is also a film director. Sadie left high school at age 16 due to difficulties they faced there.
Sadie started making art when they were 15 years old. They used a special "toy" video camera called a Fisher-Price PXL-2000, also known as PixelVision. This camera made black and white videos on regular audio cassette tapes. Sadie's father, who is an experimental filmmaker, gave them this camera as a Christmas gift.
Sadie made four short films with this camera. They showed these films for the first time in their father's film class. One of the students liked the films so much that they put one into a film festival. By the time Sadie was 19, their films had been shown in famous places like the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the Sundance Institute. Their work was also shown at international film festivals.
Artistic Themes and Ideas
Many of Sadie Benning's early short films mixed different styles. They used performances, storytelling, handwritten notes, and bits of music. These films explored ideas about identity and growing up. Sadie Benning's art has been featured in the Whitney Biennial four times. This is a very important art show. In 1993, Sadie was the youngest artist ever included in this famous show.
Sadie's first videos, like A New Year and Living Inside, showed their feelings about being alone. They also showed how their surroundings affected them. In A New Year, Sadie didn't appear on camera. Instead, they focused on things around them, like their room and window. This helped them show feelings of worry and confusion. Sadie explained, "I wanted to use objects, things that were around me, to show what was happening. I used things closest to me – the television, toys, my dog, whatever."
The ideas of identity and the challenges of growing up are often seen in Sadie Benning's art. They use popular culture, like music, TV, or newspapers, to make their point. Sometimes, they even make fun of pop culture. Sadie also gets ideas from images they see on TV or in movies. They noticed that these images are often "fake" and not helpful for women. Sadie said they started making art because they "needed different images" and didn't want to wait for someone else to create them.
As Sadie's work continued, they began to use images of their own body and voice more often. In films like If Every Girl Had a Diary, Sadie used the PixelVision camera to get very close-up shots of their face, eyes, and fingers. This helped them focus on parts of their face as they talked about their life and thoughts.
Later Art Work
Sadie Benning went to Bard College in 2013 and earned a special art degree two years later. Now, they teach there.
Their art is part of many public museum collections. These include the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
Music Career
In 1998, Sadie Benning helped start the band Le Tigre. This was a feminist post-punk band. Other members included Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna and zinester Johanna Fateman. Sadie left the band in 2001. After they left, JD Samson joined Le Tigre.
Exhibitions and Shows
Sadie Benning's art has been shown in many places around the world. Here are some of their exhibitions:
| Year | Exhibition name | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, California | ||
| 1991 | Film in the Cities | St. Paul, Minnesota | |
| 1991 | Fact/Fiction | Museum of Modern Art, New York | |
| 1991 | Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, Illinois | ||
| 1992 | Art and Kultureproject, Vienna, Austria | ||
| 1992 | Videos on the Self | Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki, Finland | |
| 1992 | Cinema in the 90s | Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York | |
| 1993 | Whitney Biennial | Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York | |
| 1993 | British Film Institute, London, England | ||
| 1993 | Vera Vita Giola Gallery, Naples, Italy | ||
| 1993 | Galerie Crassi, Paris, France | ||
| 1994 | In and Around the Body | Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania | |
| 1994 | Women's Self Portraits | University of California, Santa Cruz, and University of California, Berkeley | |
| 1994 | Queer Screen | Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia | |
| 1995 | World Wide Video Festival | Hague | |
| 1996 | Scream and Scream Again: Film in Art | Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Oxford, England | |
| 1998 | Up Close and Personal | Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | |
| 2007 | Sadie Benning: Suspended Animation | Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio | |
| 2007 | Sadie Benning: Play Pause | Dia Center, New York City, New York | |
| 2008 | 7th Gwangju Biennale | Gwangju, South Jeolla province, South Korea | |
| 2012 | VHS the Exhibition | Franklin Street Works, Stamford, Connecticut | |
| 2012 | Raw/Cooked: Ulrike Müller | Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York | |
| 2013–2014 | 2013 Carnegie International | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | |
| 2016 | Off-Site Exhibition: A Shape That Stands Up | Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California | |
| 2017 | Shared Eye | Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland |
Art Works by Sadie Benning
Here is a list of some of Sadie Benning's film and art works:
| Dates | Name | Medium | Duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | A New Year | black & white video, Pixelvision | 5:57 | This art piece is in the collections at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. |
| 1989 | Me & Rubyfruit | black & white video, Pixelvision | 5:31 | This art piece is in the collections at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. |
| 1989 | Living Inside | black & white video, Pixelvision | 5:06 | This art piece is in the collections at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. |
| 1990 | If Every Girl Had a Diary | black & white video, Pixelvison | 8:56 | This art piece is in the collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. |
| 1990 | Welcome to Normal | color video, Hi 8 | 20:00 | |
| 1990 | Jollies | black & white video, Pixelvision | 11:18 | This art piece is in the collections at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. |
| 1991 | A Place Called Lovely | black & white video, Pixelvision | 13:40 | |
| 1992 | It Wasn’t Love (But It Was Something) | black & white video, Pixelvision | 19:06 | |
| 1992 | Girl Power | black & white video, Pixelvision | 15:00 | |
| 1995 | The Judy Spots | color video, 16 mm film | 12:30 | The film was produced by Elisabeth Subrin. This art piece is in the collection at the Museum of Modern Art. |
| 1995 | German Song | black & white video, Super 8 film | 6:00 | Made with the band Come. This art piece is in the collection at the Museum of Modern Art. |
| 1998 | Flat Is Beautiful | black & white video, Pixelvision, 16mm film, and Super 8 film | 56:00 | Video co-starring Mark Ewert. This art piece is in the collection at the Museum of Modern Art. |
| 1998 | Aerobicide | video, color | 4:00 | Video made for a song on the Julie Ruin album. |
| 2006 | Play Pause | two channel video installation from hard drive, color digital video/ drawings on paper | 29:21 | Directed by Sadie Benning with Solveig Nelson. Drawings and sound by Sadie Benning. Influenced by the book, Ulysses by James Joyce. This art piece is in the collection at the Whitney Museum of American Art. |
| Year | Name | Medium | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Le Tigre Slide Show | slide installation projected during Le Tigre music performances, 40:00, drawings & color slides | |
| 2003 | The Baby | installation, 5:40, color digital video/ drawings on paper | |
| 2003 | One Liner | installation, 5:07, b&w video/ Pixelvision | |
| 2013 | Locating Center | installation of abstract paintings | This work was created for the Carnegie Museum of Art, for the 2013 Carnegie International. |
| Year | Name | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Le Tigre | compact disc and vinyl | Music album recorded with Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman. |
Awards and Recognition
Sadie Benning has received many awards and honors for their work. In 1991, the first article about their art appeared in a national magazine. In 2004, a special show of all of Sadie Benning's video works was put together.
Sadie has also received grants and fellowships from important groups like the Guggenheim Fellowship (2005) and the Rockefeller Foundation (1992). They also received awards like the Wexner Center Residency Award in Media Arts and the Los Angeles Film Critics Circle Award.
Their videos are shared by the Video Data Bank at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
See also
In Spanish: Sadie Benning para niños
