Sondra Perry facts for kids

Sondra Perry is an artist who uses video, computer art, and installations to create her work. She explores ideas about "blackness," black women, and African American history. Her art often looks at how black people are shown in media and how this affects technology and image-making.

Perry believes in making art available to everyone. She uses free software to create her art. She also shares her videos online for free. This helps more people see and learn from her work. She thinks that "blackness" can be a way to challenge systems that watch and control people.

Sondra Perry's Career

Sondra Perry studied art at Alfred University and Columbia University. Since 2019, she has taught video art at Columbia University.

Her art has been shown in many places. These include The Kitchen in New York and MoMA PS1. Her videos have also been shown in Paris, China, and at the LOOP Barcelona Media Arts Festival.

In 2017, Perry had a solo show called flesh out in Buffalo, New York. She has won several important awards. These include the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant and the Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize. This prize gave her a solo show at the Seattle Art Museum and $10,000. She also received the first Toby's Prize from MOCA Cleveland, worth $50,000. In 2018, she won the Nam June Paik Award for artists working with media art.

Black Girl as a Landscape (2010)

In this video, Perry slowly moves the camera over the shape of a girl's body. This makes the body look abstract. Perry wanted to show how individual bodies connect to bigger ideas about art and the environment.

Red Summer (2010)

This photo series shows Perry's grandparents in their backyard. Smoke bombs hide them. The photos remind us of the damage seen in cities like Washington and Chicago during the race riots of 1919. This time was known as Red Summer.

Double Quadruple Etcetera Etcetera I (2013)

This artwork was shown at the Studio Museum in Harlem. It features a 30-second video loop of a man dancing in a white room. This short clip plays for 9 minutes. The video was also part of the Disguise: Masks and Global African Art show. It is now on display at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

42 Black Panther Balloons on 125th Street (2014)

Perry created this piece with a mix of humor and politics. She carried many black panther balloons around town. One photo shows the balloons hiding the person holding them. This creates a powerful and thought-provoking image. She also used similar balloons in her online video, Black Panther Cam.

Lineage for a Multiple Monitor Workstation: Number One (2015)

This 26-minute video explores how our identity is built. Perry tells a story about her family. She mixes family memories with song clips and computer effects.

Resident Evil (2016)

Graft and Ash for a Three Monitor Workstation (2016) at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 2022

This exhibition was at The Kitchen in New York. It included a video called netherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 1.0.3. This video combines images like the "blue screen of death" (a computer error) with images of police actions. It also shows pictures of black women killed by police. The video highlights how violence against one black person affects everyone.

The exhibit also featured Graft and Ash for a Three Monitor Workstation (2016). This piece is an exercise bike with three screens attached. An avatar of Perry explains the machine. The bike is designed to be uncomfortable to use. Perry's avatar also talks about a study. It suggests that black people who believe the world is fair might get sick more often. Perry uses artificial intelligence (AI) in this work. She shows how technology can sometimes make people seem less human.

The main video, Resident Evil, looks at how media shows black people. It includes footage from the 2015 protests after the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.

Eclogue For Inhabitability (2017)

Sondra Perry at Seattle Art Museum in 2017, lecturing for her exhibition Eclogue For Inhabitability.

In 2017, Perry won the Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize. This led to her solo exhibition, Eclogue For Inhabitability, at the Seattle Art Museum. This was the first time a video artist won this award.

In this exhibition, Perry showed sculptures and a video. The video focused on her twin brother, Sandy. His information was used by a video game company without his permission. In Perry's video, Sandy's video game character explores museums. This shows how our digital identities can be copied and sold. Perry's art reminds us that this kind of identity theft is not new.

Typhoon coming on (2018)

Perry created a new sound piece for the Serpentine Sackler Gallery. It went with an updated version of her work Wet and Wavy Looks – Typhoon coming on (2016). This piece was inspired by JMW Turner's 1840 painting, The Slave Ship. That painting shows the Zong massacre of 1781. During this event, a ship captain threw 133 enslaved people overboard for insurance money. Perry digitally changed The Slave Ship to look like ripples of skin. She used free animation software called Blender to create this work.

A Terrible Thing (2019)

In 2019, Perry's exhibit A Terrible Thing was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland. This exhibit explored the work and environment involved in creating art shows. It also highlighted issues around city development projects. Perry researched the history of blacksmithing. She learned how it is a skilled job that builds the foundations of buildings and cities.

Her work is also a big part of the "Going Dark: Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility" exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. This show runs until April 7, 2024. Her piece "Graft and Ash for a Three Monitor Workstation" is a main feature there.