February 17 – April 11, 2010
An American video artist, Cecelia Condit’s work focuses on the contrast between the everyday world and fairy tales, with topics ranging from female aging to the imaginary world of children to suburban cannibalism. Since the early 1980s Cecelia Condit’s narrative tapes have explored the not-so-average experiences of the “average woman” in a social climate of sublimated violence, fear, and misogynist aggression. Her dark-humored tapes conflate fairy tale morals with the grisly sensationalism of tabloid headlines, incorporating live action, appropriated television images, and original music into frequently operatic narratives. According to the artist, “My work centers around the theme of how bizarre events disrupt mundane lives. By contrasting the commonplace with the macabre, humor with the absurd, I address a reality that is both surprisingly believable yet strange enough to belong only to the realm of fiction.”
“I consider myself a storyteller whose work swings between beauty and the grotesque, humor and the macabre, innocence and cruelty. My videos explore the dark side of female subjectivity and address the fear, aggression and displacement that exist between ourselves and society, ourselves, and the natural world.” Condit is also Professor of Film and Video at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Installation Images
Cecelia Condit, First Dream After Mother Died, 2010.
Three-Track Video Installation, 6 Minutes.
Cecelia Condit, First Dream After Mother Died, 2010.
Three-Track Video Installation, 6 Minutes.