New York-based artist Dara Birnbaum, a pioneer of media critique. Since the mid-’70s, Birnbaum has consistently mined the telecommunications industry to make videos that are at once feminist polemic, critical essay, and aesthetic exploration. Her seminal 1978 piece, Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, is an example of virtuosic video editing, looping actress Linda Carter’s trademark spin so that she never completes the shift from svelte superhero to ordinary working woman, while simultaneously casting an analytical eye on television’s representation of a “super woman,” red bustier, star-flecked hot pants, knee-high boots and all. view video


Interview in Bomb Magazine
Interview in ArtInfo
Cabinet Magazine: Cable TV’s Failed Utopian Vision: An Interview with Dara Birnbaum, winter 2002/2003