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Cheryl Donegan's videos, paintings, and performances explore the politics and aesthetics of self-representation, notably through fashion and the use and depiction of the female body in art. With an interest in the role of surface in representation, Donegan juxtaposes clothing, advertising, and the body itself as tools for presenting and making pictures. Appropriating images and videos from sources including eBay, advertisements, and YouTube "haul" videos—clips made predominantly by young women showcasing the spoils from their latest shopping trips—Donegan collages together kaleidoscopic videos that are both provocative and humorous. The colorful, lo-fi immediacy of her works is underscored by many of their accompanying soundtracks, which feature bands including Iggy & The Stooges, The Modern Lovers, and The Ramones, among others.
Not exhibited since Donegan's first solo exhibition at Elizabeth Koury Gallery in New York in 1993, High Line Art presents Guide (1993) and Sunflower (1993), two short works that showcase Donegan's signature quick, gestural style. Filmed outside a gas station in Tennessee, Scenes + Commercials (1997) focuses on an uncut recording of the Beach Boys rehearsing "Help Me Rhonda," including the overbearing demands of their father and manager, Murry Wilson. The video reveals the flawed and tense family life behind the idolized American dream promised by the band. Craft (1999) looks toward the art world, criticizing the romanticized vision of the artist as a master craftsman, as Donegan "crafts" images by biting through slices of Kraft cheese and white bread. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before (2008) is, according to Donegan, a "tour-de-force of gab," in which the artist recites verbatim a monologue by the character Viva from Andy Warhol's 1967 film Nude Restaurant.
Finally, Donegan presents her VINES PROJECT (2015 –ongoing) in the form an iPhone screen shot of her VINE channel, YourPlasticBag. Visitors are encouraged to browse through the 6-second videos on their mobile devices alongside the formal screening, and to take the ever-expanding channel with them when they leave. Donegan?s interest in the lived experience of commercial culture continues in this series, which reflects her earlier videos, as well as her paintings and her recent clothing line.
"Cheryl Donegan's work composes an integral part of a decidedly female chapter in the history of Conceptual
art," says Melanie Kress, High Line Art Assistant Curator. "It has been thrilling to see the recent resurgent interest
in Cheryl's practice, and to be able to present this breadth of her videos together on one screen to such a broad
audience."
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Cheryl Donegan (b.1962) lives and works in New York. Recent solo exhibitions have been featured at the New Museum, New York (2016); Levy Deval, Brussels (2015); Horse and Pony Fine Arts, Berlin (2015); and Rockland County Museum of Art, West Nyack, NY (2009). Notable group exhibitions include My Crippled Friend, Canzani Center Gallery, Columbus College of Art and Design, OH (2013); Outside the Lines: UIA (Unlikely Iterations of the Abstract), Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston (2013); In Search of an Image, Kersgallery, Amsterdam (2013); NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, New Museum, New York (2013); Paint Things, Decordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA (2013); Beside, With, Against and Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-made Gesture, The Kitchen, New York (2009); and Between Spaces, MoMA PS1, Long Island City, New York (2009).
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About High Line Art
Presented by Friends of the High Line, High Line Art commissions and produces public art projects on and around the High Line. Founded in 2009, High Line Art presents a wide array of artwork including site-specific commissions, exhibitions, performances, video programs, and a series of billboard interventions. Curated by Cecilia Alemani, the Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, and produced by Friends of the High Line, High Line Art invites artists to think of creative ways to engage with the uniqueness of the architecture, history, and design of the High Line and to foster a productive dialogue with the surrounding neighborhood and urban landscape.
Major support for High Line Art comes from Donald R. Mullen, Jr. and The Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston. Additional funding is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Dorothy Lichtenstein. High Line Art is supported, in part, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the New York City Council and from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
For further information on High Line Art, please visit art.thehighline.org
About Friends of the High Line
Friends of the High Line raises 98% of the High Line;'s annual budget. Owned by the City of New York, the High Line is a public park maintained, operated, and programmed by Friends of the High Line, in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.
About EAI
Celebrating our 45th anniversary in 2016, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is a nonprofit arts organization that fosters the creation, exhibition, distribution, and preservation of moving image art. A New York-based international resource for media art and artists, EAI holds a major collection of over 3,500 new and historical media artworks, from groundbreaking early video by pioneering figures of the 1960s to new digital projects by today's emerging artists. EAI works closely with artists, museums, schools and other venues worldwide to preserve and provide access to this significant archive. EAI services also include viewing access, educational initiatives, extensive online resources, technical facilities, and public programs such as artists' talks, screenings, and multi-media performances. EAI's Online Catalogue is a comprehensive resource on the artists and works in the EAI collection, and features expansive materials on media art's histories and current practices: www.eai.org
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Electronic Arts Intermix
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New York, NY 10011
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EAI's Public Programs are supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. EAI also receives program support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
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