Uploaded January 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Artist and filmmaker Garrett Bradley (b. 1986) discusses her film America (2019), featured in her premiere solo museum exhibition, Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody.
In America, a multi-channel video installation, Bradley constructs a visual archive of early African American cinema. Inspired by a 2013 survey published by the Library of Congress proposing that 70 percent of silent films made between 1912 and 1929 have been lost, as well as the discovery and restoration of what is believed to be the earliest surviving film to feature a black cast (Lime Kiln Club Field Day, 1913), America takes shape as a series of vignettes depicting the everyday, at times, quotidian lives of early-20th century African Americans. Shot in black and white, with a score by Trevor Mathison and Udit Duseja of the Black Audio Film Collective (1983–1998), Bradley’s film presupposes the existence of a body of cinema made by and for African Americans and since lost to history. Mixing found footage from Lime Kiln Club Field Day and newly shot performances by non-trained actors, America poignantly asks what it might mean to model a history of black visuality and representation that privileges depictions of pleasure over spectacles of pain.
Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody is organized by Rebecca Matalon, Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
Visit our website to learn more about the exhibition.
camh.org/event/garrett-bradley-american-rhapsody
Work:
Garrett Bradley, America, 2019. Multi-channel video installation; 35mm film transferred to video: black and white, sound, 23:55 minutes. New Orleans Museum of Art: Museum purchase, Carmen Donaldson fund, 2019.33.
© 2020 Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Artist and filmmaker Garrett Bradley (b. 1986) discusses her film America (2019), featured in her premiere solo museum exhibition, Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody.
In America, a multi-channel video installation, Bradley constructs a visual archive of early African American cinema. Inspired by a 2013 survey published by the Library of Congress proposing that 70 percent of silent films made between 1912 and 1929 have been lost, as well as the discovery and restoration of what is believed to be the earliest surviving film to feature a black cast (Lime Kiln Club Field Day, 1913), America takes shape as a series of vignettes depicting the everyday, at times, quotidian lives of early-20th century African Americans. Shot in black and white, with a score by Trevor Mathison and Udit Duseja of the Black Audio Film Collective (1983–1998), Bradley’s film presupposes the existence of a body of cinema made by and for African Americans and since lost to history. Mixing found footage from Lime Kiln Club Field Day and newly shot performances by non-trained actors, America poignantly asks what it might mean to model a history of black visuality and representation that privileges depictions of pleasure over spectacles of pain.
Garrett Bradley: American Rhapsody is organized by Rebecca Matalon, Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.
Visit our website to learn more about the exhibition.
camh.org/event/garrett-bradley-american-rhapsody
Work:
Garrett Bradley, America, 2019. Multi-channel video installation; 35mm film transferred to video: black and white, sound, 23:55 minutes. New Orleans Museum of Art: Museum purchase, Carmen Donaldson fund, 2019.33.
© 2020 Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
