Suspended Animation highlights Benning's playful, lo-fi aesthetic in charmingly gawky large-scale paintings of portrait-like heads, shown here for the first time in a solo exhibition. It also features the premiere of Play Pause, a two-channel video that offers a rhythmic and affectionate view of contemporary life in a city's streets, parks, and gay bars. The video is made from hundreds of Benning's drawings and was developed, shot, and edited in the Wexner Center's Art and Technology studios.

Based in Chicago, Benning was a Wexner Center Residency Award recipient in media arts in 2003-04, and plans for this exhibition grew out of her residency experiences. Since then, Benning has visited the center often to work on Play Pause and the exhibition. The center has screened her videos on several occasions, including a retrospective series presented in February 2004 in conjunction with her residency.

Organized by the Wexner Center. Curated by Associate Curator of Media Arts Jennifer Lange. A catalogue with an introduction by Lange, and essays by Chief Curator of Exhibitions Helen Molesworth, poet and novelist Eileen Myles, and writer Aleksandar Hemon, plus a conversation between Benning and artist Amy Sillman, accompanies the show.


image credit
Sadie Benning
untitled, 2001
Flashe paint on canvas
81 x 66 in.
Courtesy of the artist