Art News

Dara Birnbaum’s earliest single channel works from the 1970s at the South London Gallery

LONDON.- American artist Dara Birnbaum was one of the first to subvert the language of television and is internationally recognised for her pioneering video works made over the past three and a half decades. For her South London Gallery exhibition she presents the UK premiere of her recent work, Arabesque, 2011, a multi-channel video installation which reflects the legacy of two piano compositions; one composed by Robert Schumann for his wife Clara, the other composed by Clara Schumann for her husband Robert. Spanning the SLG’s main exhibition space and first floor galleries, the show also includes the seminal work, Attack Piece, 1975, Birnbaum’s first surviving installation, and a series of her single channel works from the 1970s. A survey of Birnbaum’s analysis of television through the 1980s, including Technology/Transformation: