Somebody's Children

Somebody’s Children: Videos by Aki Goto; Featuring Sadie Benning, Josiane M.H. Pozi and Ryan Trecartin

The video work of artist Aki Goto brings a hallucinatory, fantastical edge to quotidian family dynamics. Shot by Goto on her iPhone, edited and soundtracked by the artist herself, the videos often depict the artist’s children, Yuki and Senka, as they navigate the world. They skate in roller rinks, run outdoors, play-act in the kitchen. With an intimacy only a mother can elicit, Goto creates poignant and humorous narratives around both her children and her own life as a mother and artist.

The accompanying videos by Sadie Benning, Josiane M.H Pozi and Ryan Trecartin are varied portraits of youth: close-up, unscripted, vulnerable, unsavory, curious, fraught, free. Parents loom large in these videos too. A young Benning began making these confessional videos of adolescent awakening when their father, artist James Benning, purchased them a camera. Pingey, a two-part chamber piece by Pozi, examines the artist’s shifting relationship with her father as she enters adulthood. Trecartin’s Junior War is a frenzied portrait of late teendom, set in a raucous party in the woods in the year 2000. It was released 13 years later.

Punctuating Goto’s videos of her children, these videos showcase youth filming themselves and each other with disarming honesty. Together, these videos cast an arch from childhood to young adulthood. This is how it feels to grow up and to make good on that instinct to record the joys and pains.

Please note that some of these videos contain mature themes that may not be suitable for children.

Curated by Daniel Merritt, co-presented with Europa. Poster by Aki Goto.