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Portrait of President Jill Ker Conway

Hermine Freed

1976 00:10:28 United StatesEnglishColorMono4:3Video

Description

In this experimental interview with Jill Ker Conway, Freed outlines a portrait in chalk on a black surface as the soundtrack conveys Conway describing her fascination with the way ones visual self appears on camera and the way an artist perceives their subject. When the sketch is complete, Freed begins to apply paint, revealing Conway’s actual photograph beneath the chalk outline through a chroma-keying technique. As more of the photograph becomes clear, Conway reflects on the occasion in which this image was taken - a recent commencement address in Connecticut and goes on to briefly discuss her academic career and ambitions. With additional brush strokes, a further layer of paint reveals Conway being interviewed and thus brings the sound and image into unison. This playful approach to the interview process is an investigation into the representational qualities of video that captures its subject in an implicit and inventive manner.

About Hermine Freed

Hermine Freed studied painting at Cornell University and New York University. During the late '60s she taught at NYU, working as program editor for an NYU-sponsored series on art books for WNYC. Assisted by colleague Andy Mann, she began using video to produce a series of contemporary artist portraits, beginning with painter James Rosenquist. Although the program did not meet WNYC's broadcast standards, Freed continued to produce the series, showing the tapes to her students and at other venues. In 1972 she was invited to participate in the groundbreaking exhibition Circuit: A Video Invitational by Everson Museum curator David Ross, whose encouragement led her to explore other aspects of the medium and produce a new body of work. Freed continued to produce both documentaries and artworks exploring female perception and self-image. Art Herstory (1974) was made while she was an artist-in-residence at the Television Lab at WNET. Freed taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York from 1972. She passed away in 1998.