Sondra Perry

Sondra Perry is a media artist whose work investigates the role of digital technology in the systemic oppression of black identity,^[1][2] often centering on the way blackness influences technology and image making.^[3] Perry explores the duality of intelligence and seductivity in the contexts of black family heritage, black history, and black femininity.^[4][5]

Life and career

Sondra Perry received a BFA from Alfred University in 2012 and an MFA from Columbia University in 2015.^[6] Perry has had multiple solo exhibitions, including at THE KITCHEN, for her work "Resident Evil",^[7] and at the Institute for New Connotative Action.^[8] Her work has been exhibited at MoMA PS1^[9][10] and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.^[11] Perry's video work has been screened at Tribeca Cinemas in New York, Les Voutes in Paris, France, LuXun Academy of Fine Arts Museum in Shenyang, China, and at the LOOP Barcelona Media Arts Festival.^[12] From January to May 2017, Sondra Perry had a solo exhibition, flesh out, at Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center in Buffalo, New York. ^[13]

She was recently awarded the Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize for a solo show at the Seattle Art Museum and a $10,000 stipend.^[14][15] She has also received the Worldstudio AIGA Scholarship, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Scholarship, and a Visual Arts Scholarship from Columbia University.^[16]

Works

Red Summer (2010)

This photo series depicts Perry's grandparents in their backyard obscured by smoke bombs. The photographs depict the physical destruction seen in cities such as Washington and Chicago.^[9]

Double Quadruple Etcetera Etcetera I (2013)

Exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Double Quadruple Etcetera Etcetera I showcases a 30-second loop of a man dancing in a white room looped over 9 minutes.^[17]

Lineage for a Multiple Monitor Workstation: Number One (2015)

This 26 minute two channel video explores the relationship between identity and ritual.^[18] Perry developed this piece as a narrative about her family and includes family memories that are edited between song clips and computer effects.^[17]

Resident Evil (2016)

Exhibited at The Kitchen at 512 West 19th Street in Manhattan NY. The show featured the video netherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 1.0.3 which juxtaposes images of the "blue screen of death" (which signifies a Windows operating system fatal error), law enforcements "blue wall of silence", Police Raids, photos of black women who have died in the custody of police, Bill Gates dancing and Perry's avatar. The exhibit also featured Graft and Ash for a Three Monitor Workstation. The piece is an exercise bike with a triptych of screens attached. From the screens, Perry's avatar tells the viewer of a scientific study in which those black people who believe the world is fair are more prone to chronic illnesses. Resident Evil is the titular video from the exhibit which examines the media's take on blackness. There is footage of the 2015 riots after the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. One of the protestors yells at Geraldo Rivera for covering the protests and not the circumstances of Freddie Gray's death. Later on, Perry enters her family home with Eartha Kitt singing "I want to be Evil" on the television.^[19]

References