Martine Syms

Martine SYMS (1988, US) obtained an MFA from Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson in New York and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Syms has earned wide recognition for a practice that combines conceptual grit, humour and social commentary. Using a combination of video, installation and performance, often interwoven with explorations into technique and narrative, Syms examines representations of blackness and its relationship to vernacular, feminist thought and radical traditions. Syms’s research-based practice frequently references and incorporates theoretical models concerning performed or imposed identities, the power of the gesture and embedded assumptions concerning gender and racial inequalities. Her feature The African Desperate screened at IFFR in 2022.

Filmography

(selection) Lessons: I-XXX (2014, short), A Pilot For A Show About Nowhere (2015, short), Notes On Gesture (2015, short), Memory Palace (2015, short), Lessons: XXXI-LX (2016, short), Incense Sweaters & Ice (2017), SHE MAD: Bitch Zone (2020), Meditation (2021, short), The Fool (2021, short), DED (2021), Slip (2021), Soliloquy (2021), The African Desperate (2022), This is a Studio (2023, short)

More info: Martine Syms
Wikipedia, Martine Syms