After Harry

Sara Greenberger Rafferty

Sara Greenberger Rafferty’s work uses the lens of entertainment to magnify the sense of dehumanization inherent in the age of surveillance and Big Data. In the past, her practice has followed a biographical track; this includes a protracted body of work concerning itself with the late escape artist and magician Harry Houdini. After Harry, a prominent work from that time, recreates the water chamber from one of Houdini’s signature illusions; left empty save for a set of chains, ropes, and locks similar to those worn by the escape artist. Rafferty leverages the absence of the body to frame questions of autonomy, mobility, and mortality.

Sara Greenberger Rafferty’s work uses the lens of entertainment to magnify the sense of dehumanization inherent in the age of surveillance and Big Data. In the past, her practice has followed a biographical track; this includes a protracted body of work concerning itself with the late escape artist and magician Harry Houdini. After Harry, a prominent work from that time, recreates the water chamber from one of Houdini’s signature illusions; left empty save for a set of chains, ropes, and locks similar to those worn by the escape artist. Rafferty leverages the absence of the body to frame questions of autonomy, mobility, and mortality.

Sara Greenberger Rafferty’s work uses the lens of entertainment to magnify the sense of dehumanization inherent in the age of surveillance and Big Data. In the past, her practice has followed a biographical track; this includes a protracted body of work concerning itself with the late escape artist and magician Harry Houdini. After Harry, a prominent work from that time, recreates the water chamber from one of Houdini’s signature illusions; left empty save for a set of chains, ropes, and locks similar to those worn by the escape artist. Rafferty leverages the absence of the body to frame questions of autonomy, mobility, and mortality.

Sara Greenberger Rafferty

After Harry

Exhibition

there is this We

Materials & Dimensions

Plexiglass, stainless steel, rope, chains, locks, vinyl, found objects

Plexiglass, stainless steel, rope, chains, locks, vinyl, found objects

84 x 36 x 36 inches

Year

2008

Site

Pfister Hotel Pocket Park 412 E Wisconsin Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53202

Pfister Hotel Pocket Park 412 E Wisconsin Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53202

Credits

Courtesy of the artist, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, and DOCUMENT, Chicago.

Courtesy of the artist, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, and DOCUMENT, Chicago.

THANK YOU

to our supporters and members

to our supporters and members

to our supporters and members