Maren Hassinger

Ulysses Jenkins composed "Dream City" from documentation of a twenty-four-hour performance he organized in collaboration with David Hammons, Maren Hassinger, and Senga Nengudi. A discordant, absurdist, and poetic montage, the video weaves together jazz and punk shows, recitations by Jenkins, and shots of the Los Angeles skyline and oil wells to comment on power and nation in the early years of Ronald Reagan's presidency.

Part 1 of a trio of pieces titled Lives. "Diaries" documents daily activity.

Voices, a performance piece written and directed by Hassinger, was performed by her friends and fellow artists-including Ulysses Jenkins, Senga Nengudi, and May Sun—who each took on the role of a specific societal force, such as survival, intolerance, or consumerism. In this iteration of the performance, Hassinger played "the conductor," directing the performers in their monologues as if they were an acapella choir. The performance reflects on the wavering place of nature amidst encroaching technologies that change our economic, moral, and political realities. The piece was presented on two occasions: first at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles in 1984, and later at California State University, Los Angeles, in 1985.

In Daily Mask (2004), Hassinger embodies the narrator caught behind the minstrel's (a racist cultural stereotype) mask. - LeRonn P. Brooks

Part 2 of a trio of pieces titled Lives. "Lives" documents how mothers and their children move similarly.

Part 3 of a trio of pieces titled Lives. "Vanities" was performed for the camera.

Green explores the vibrant glow of summer through scenes of towering trees, vast manicured lawns, a mantis, and a snake, set to a text narrated by Hassinger's long-time collaborator, artist Senga Nengudi.

Part 1 of a trio of pieces titled Lives. "Diaries" documents daily activity.

Beige is a compilation of documentary footage of the winter landscape captured on Hassinger's commute across Long Island to her teaching job at Stony Brook University. Color became the lens through which Hassinger depicted the quality of the surrounding landscape.

Voices, a performance piece written and directed by Hassinger, was performed by her friends and fellow artists-including Ulysses Jenkins, Senga Nengudi, and May Sun—who each took on the role of a specific societal force, such as survival, intolerance, or consumerism. In this iteration of the performance, Hassinger played "the conductor," directing the performers in their monologues as if they were an acapella choir. The performance reflects on the wavering place of nature amidst encroaching technologies that change our economic, moral, and political realities. The piece was presented on two occasions: first at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles in 1984, and later at California State University, Los Angeles, in 1985.

In 2011, Maren Hassinger and daughter Ava Hassinger formed the artist duo Matriarch. Wind, the only collaborative video produced by Matriarch, revisits the East Hampton region where Ava grew up and her mother first experimented with video. Dressed in layered white fabrics, the artists move their bodies in response to each other and to the natural world around them. The wind shapes each frame, as their clothing billows in its wake and the invisible current of air becomes the ambient soundtrack for the work.

In Legacy (2006), a thirteen-minute video projection of various words and phrases which relate to the African-American experience, Hassinger collapses present-day perceptions with a critical eye on the past history. - Shannon Egan

In Daily Mask (2004), Hassinger embodies the narrator caught behind the minstrel's (a racist cultural stereotype) mask. - LeRonn P. Brooks

Part 2 of a trio of pieces titled Lives. "Lives" documents how mothers and their children move similarly.

An impromptu choreography of housework, including rhythmic sweeping, dancing, moving around with plastic bags filled with clothing, and demonstrating a piece of art made of paper. - Lowery Stokes Sims and Archives of American Art finding aid.

Part 3 of a trio of pieces titled Lives. "Vanities" was performed for the camera.

This is the story of my Father’s family. All the past washes downriver, leaving debris as in the wake of a terrible flood.