Chloe Piene's video, Blackmouth is a 4-minute loop of a girl in her underwear, covered in mud and screaming in slow-motion, her cries echoing like the primal moans of a wounded elephant. The first time I walked through the darkened gallery, I noticed a couple of men watching the video and cackling uncontrollably. Later, I overhead two middle-aged women confess that they found the piece deeply distressing, almost unwatchable. Either way, the effect was cheap and sensational.

 

Still from Blackmouth, 2003, by Chloe Piene, courtesy of Whitney Museum of American Art.


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