press release

This installation at the Sert Gallery will feature a selection of videos by the artist, filmmaker, and photographer Laurel Nakadate, whose work pushes the boundaries of voyeurism, exhibitionism, and vulnerability. In videos such as Happy Birthday, she performs a Lolita-like role in a series of sometimes unsettling fictional vignettes with mostly white, middle-aged men she meets through chance encounters. In others, including Good Morning Sunshine, she continues to exploit the unsavory yet titillating nature of interactions between older men and girls by voicing the role of a predator. Nakadate is always in control, whether in front of or behind the camera; yet her intention is not to make fun of her collaborators. Her videos are complicated but ultimately empathetic meditations on loneliness and longing. Curated by Michelle Lamunière, John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Assistant Curator of Photography, Division of Modern and Contemporary Art, Harvard Art Museums.

only in german

Laurel Nakadate
Kurator: Michelle Lamuniere