Whitney Biennial| 2010

I atteneded the Whitney Biennial, titled 2010. I was surprised at the number of New Media artists presented in the biennial. One of the artists to stickout the most was Kate Gilmore. She is a New York based artist, whose work is more about the process and documentation of her performances, than the final outcome of the video. She works in themes of struggle, displacement and female identity. In her performances she makes self-constructed obstacles that she needs to get out of or conquer. Her piece in the Whitney Biennial was Standing Here, in which she built a column of drywall, that she had to get herself out of by kicking and punching through the walls. Another aspect of the video is her attire, which consists of heels and a skirt, contradictory to the actions shes performing. Her video performances are performed and only shot once, leaving the outcome of the video upto fate. The video itself is a metaphor for the conflicts and obstacles women face today.
I like Kate Gilmore's piece because her content is something i find myself thinking about often. I also like how she presents not only the video, but the actual column thats in the video. It brings an element of reality to the video by having the column there also.
In general, i was unimpressed with the new media artists chosen for the Whitney Biennial. Many of the videos seemed stale, and lacked content that really drew me in. If i had to chose, i liked the more abstract films, as opposed to the documentary films because they allowed for my own interpretation.