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Abigail Child
(1948 - living) U.S.A.

Abigail Child

Video maker, writer, poetess

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Abigail Child was born in Newark, New Jersey. In 1968, she graduated from Radcliffe College in Harvard University with a degree in history and literature. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Film. She has taught at several universities, including New York University, Massachusetts College of Art, and Hampshire College. She has been the chair of Film and Animation department at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston since 2000 and was appointed to a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. In 2009, she was awarded the Rome Prize.

Child began making films in the 1970s, producing seven independent documentaries shot on 16mm. From the middle of the 70s she turned to experimental montage and in the 80s her work explores gender and strategies for remaking narrative. Is This What You Were Born For? is a major, seven-part experimental work from this period, completed over nine years, which included the cult classics Mayhem and Covert Action . In the 90s Child poetically envisioned and interrogated public spaces in such films as B/side (1996), about urban homelessness on the Lower East Side of New York city, and Below the New: A Russian Chronicle (1999), filmed in St. Petersburg.

In the 21st century, Child's film and video has explored history, memory, and cultural experiences - the politics of place and identity. Digital works investigate the awkward drama of the everyday, often utilizing found material to examine the past. Mirror World (2006) is a multi-screen installation that incorporates parts of Child's "foreign film" series to explore narrative excess. Her video documentary On The Downlow (2007), is an exploration of bisexuality and an intimate look at a little-viewed underground scene.

In 2012, Child completed a feature film, Shape of Error, an imaginary "home movie" based on the diaries of Mary Shelley during her marriage with Percy Shelley. Child is also the author of five books of poetry (published between 1983 and 2012) and a book of critical writings. A collection of writings by various authors on Is This What You Were Born For? including a DVD of the film series, was published in 2011.

Abigail Child's moving images contain elements of humor, liveliness and complex sound/image montage. She makes brilliant exciting work and a vibrant political filmmaking that's attentive to form. Her films explore gesture as language, using radical strategies to rewrite narrative. Other productions borrow documentary to poetically envision and interrogate public space. Recent work has expanded into installation utilizing surround sound and multiple projectors, re-focusing her montage in space. Child is senior faculty at the School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and calls New York City home.

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Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia & http://www.smfa.edu/

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