Catalogue > At random

Commissioned by VideoGram International, Ltd., for a videodisc of music by Jimi Hendrix, Fire! uses the stylized visuals and pacing of a music video to critique the representational economies of sexuality and consumerism. Translating the psychedelic fervor of the Hendrix song into a contemporary visual vernacular, Birnbaum similarly recasts the lyrics' meaning. A young woman is the "protagonist" of a fragmented narrative in which Birnbaum re-frames images of American consumerism and commodities — fast food, cars, the exchange of money. Birnbaum calls attention to the woman's relation to the advertising image: she is consumed as she is consuming.

For four decades, Dara Birnbaum's pioneering works in video, media and installation have questioned the ideological and aesthetic character of mass media imagery, and are considered fundamental to our understanding of the history of media practices and contemporary art. Dara Birnbaum was born in New York City in 1946 where she continues to live and work. Dara Birnbaum received a B.A. in architecture from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, a B.F.A. in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, and a certificate in video and electronic editing from the Video Study Center at the New School for Social Research in New York. Dara Birnbaum was one of the first artists to develop complex and innovative installations that juxtapose images from multiple sources while incorporating three-dimensional elements - large-scale photographs, sculptural or architectural elements - into the work. She is known for her innovative strategies and use of manipulated television footage. Birnbaum's work has been exhibited widely at MoMA PS1, New York (2019); National Portrait Gallery, London (2018); Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio (2018); South London Gallery, UK (2011); major retrospectives at Serralves Foundation, Porto, Portugal (2010) and S. M.A.K. Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium (2009); Center for Contemporary Art, CCA Kitakyushu (2009); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2008); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (2006); and The Jewish Museum, New York (2003). His work has been exhibited at Documenta 7, 8 and 9. Birnbaum has won several prestigious awards including: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2021); The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Arts Residency (2011); the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2011); and the prestigious United States Artists Fellowship (2010). In 2016, she was recognized and honored for her work by The Kitchen, New York, at their annual gala. She was the first woman in video to receive the prestigious Maya Deren Award from the American Film Institute in 1987. In February 2017, Carnegie Mellon University's School of Art established the Birnbaum Award in her honour.