About

Presented in conjunction with the exhibition 'Earth and Elsewhere: Contemporary Works from the Collection' at GOMA.

Sadie Benning began making videos at the age of 16, using a Fisher-Price Pixelvision 2000 toy camera to produce intensely autobiographical works about her experience of growing up a lesbian in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Sheltered by the confines of her bedroom, Benning rejoices in her personal rebellion against school, the expectations of her family and, more broadly, the stereotypes of teenage femininity. Using handwritten intertitles, basic editing, and later animation and puppetry, Benning's videos have a diaristic, DIY aesthetic, and record powerful narratives of isolation, self-awareness and love.

Lecture: Bedroom Eyes
Sat 30 Nov 2.00pm / Cinema A
This illustrated lecture considers the journaling of personal experience and contemporary internet culture, positioning Sadie Benning's intimate videos in relation to material published on Tumblr by artists and non-artists alike. Program and lecture by José Da Silva, Australian Cinémathèque.

List of Works

• A New Year 1989
• Living Inside 1989
• Jollies 1990
• Girl Power (Part 1) 1990
• If Every Girl had a Diary 1990
• Me and Rubyfruit 1990
• A Place Called Lovely 1991
• It Wasn't Love 1992
• German Song 1995
• The Judy Spots 1995
• Aerobicide 1998
• Flat is Beautiful 1998