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The Meaning of Various Photographs to Tyrand Needham

A work made of dv (video), color, sound.

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  • A work made of dv (video), color, sound.

Date:

2009-10

Artist:

Steffani Jemison
American, born 1981

About this artwork

The teenager Tyrand Needham, a friend of the artist, comments on a range of photographs of Black sub-jects—both famous and anonymous—and of places, from domestic scenes to spaces marked by violent protest. Needham’s descriptions are humorous and selective; his inclusions and omissions suggest what Steffani Jemison calls “tensions between what can be read, what can be intuited, and what refuses to give up its secrets.” Responding in part to artist John Baldessari’s 1973 film The Meaning of Various Photographs to Ed Henderson, in which his friend responds to news photographs stripped of their context, Jemison trades Baldessari’s strategy of flagrant banality for an equally strategic deployment of opacity.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Steffani Jemison

Title

The Meaning of Various Photographs to Tyrand Needham

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 2009–2010

Medium

DV (video), color, sound

Edition

3 of 3, plus 2 artist's proofs

Dimensions

12:39

Credit Line

Anonymous gift

Reference Number

2022.269

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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