Hilja Keading (born 1960) is an American artist primarily working in the field of

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

Education

Hilja Keading was born on May 16, 1960, in Berkeley, California. Keading earned a B.F.A. in 1982 and an M.F.A. in 1986 in Sculpture and New Genres from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

Career

Keading primarily creates multi-channel video installations."About"
Hiljakeading.com. For example, her four-channel video installation ''The Bonkers Devotional'' (2007) depicts the artist spending time with a live black bear named ''Bonkers'' inside a small room. Exhibited in numerous venues including "Intelligent Design: Interspecies Art" at the Sweeny Gallery, U.C. Riverside (Riverside 2009), Angles Gallery (Los Angeles 2010), and the Bass Museum (Miami Beach 2012), ''The Bonkers Devotional'' has received extensive critical acclaim. ''Los Angeles Times'' art critic

David Pagel David Pagel is an American art critic, educator, curator, dioramatist and bike enthusiast. Contemporary art criticism Since 1991, Pagel has been a regular contributor to the ''Los Angeles Times.'' He is a professor of art theory and history at C ...

describes Keading's work as "a powerful piece".Pagel, David
"Art Review: Hilja Keading, 'The Bonkers Devotional' at Angles Gallery"
''Los Angeles Times'', Nov. 18, 2010.

Micol Hebron Micol Hebron (born July 23, 1972) is an American interdisciplinary artist, curator, and associate professor at Chapman University, located in Southern California. Hebron critically examines and employs modes of feminist activism in art. Early lif ...

wrote in ''Art Forum'' that "as Keading and the bear tolerate and negotiate each other's presence without resolution or capitulation, we are reminded of the profound complexities of the worlds we inhabit".Hebron, Micol
"Hilja Keading"
''Art Forum'', December 3, 2010. In addition Keading received critical praise from ''Frieze'' magazine, where critic Ian Chang noted that "the natural and the human are returned to one, and she is both innocent and culpable for our own worry and our thrill".Chang, Ian
"Hilja Keading"
''Frieze'', no. 138, April 2011. A commissioned 28-channel video filmstrip entitled ''SPLASH'' is on permanent view at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at the

Los Angeles Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the ...

."Public Projects"
Hiljakeading.com. Keading exhibits nationally and internationally, and along with solo exhibitions she has been included in high-profile exhibitions such as "Unnatural" at the Bass Museum, Miami Beach (2012), "California Video" at the Getty Museum (2008), "C.O.L.A. Exhibition", Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles (2002), "Made in California" at Los Angeles Contemporary Art Museum (2000), "American '90's Video", Kunstmuseum, Bonn, Germany (1997), the "Third Biennale of Contemporary Art," Lyon, France (1996), and "Avant Garde Video, the First 25 Years" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1994). Keading is the recipient of prestigious awards and grants including the Anonymous Was A Woman Award (2014), and the FOCA Fellowship (2013) granted by Fellows of Contemporary Art 'to mid-career artists in recognition of their significant contributions to the California art scene'."2013 FOCA Fellowship Recipients"
Fellows of Contemporary Art website. In 2012 Keading received an ARC (Artists Resource for Completion) Grant through the Durfee Foundation administered by CCI (Center for Cultural Innovation) in support of her project ''The Gospel According to This Moment'', a multi-room installation of projected video and sound.
Center for Cultural Innovations website. Keading was included in the 2008 survey volume ''California Video: Artists and Histories'' published by the Getty Research Institute and highlighting the work and profiles of notable California video artists who influenced the developing medium through experimentation with methods and technologies.Phillips, Glenn. ''California Video: Artists and Histories''. Los Angeles: Getty, 2008. Print. . Keading is a faculty member in the Department of Art at the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public land-grant research university in Riverside, California. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The main campus sits on in a suburban distr ...

."Hilja Keading"
. UC Riverside Department of Art website.

Selected works

*''The Bonkers Devotional (2007):'' In this video installation, large projections of quaking aspen trees wrap around a small room, in which two separate life-sized projections of Keading interacting with a live trained bear named Bonkers, play at right angles. ''The Bonkers Devotional'' premiered at La Tôlerie in Video Formes, Clermont-Ferrand, France."Video Installations"
Hiljakeading.com. *''Backdrop:'' A 9-channel video installation in which footage of Keading patching a severely leaking water hose with

Post-it notes A Post-it Note (or sticky note) is a small piece of paper with a re-adherable strip of glue on its back, made for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. A low-tack pressure-sensitive adhesive allows the notes to be easily ...

is edited with multiple crashing backdrops and other media, projected on two walls and redistributed across 6 floor monitors. *''Amazing Grace:'' Keading's first series of short, single-channel videos consisting of unscripted performative content. *''The Gospel According to This Moment:'' Produced in part with funds from a C.C.I. Artistic Innovation Grant, Anonymous Was A Woman, U.C.R. Fieldwork Research Grant, and a F.O.C.A Fellowship, this multi-room installation was recorded over two consecutive years in the Pawnee National Grasslands, the Colorado plains, Garden City, Kansas, and Scott City, Kansas, and features young residentss of Garden City, Kansas. The title was inspired by the 1862 essay "Walking" by David Henry Thoreau.Keading, Hilja
"The Gospel According to This Moment"
AIM/Hatchfund website.

Notes and references

External links

"Hilja Keading - The Bonkers Devotional - West Coast Video Art - MOCAtv"
*O'Brien, Katied, and Hilja Keading
"Interview about ''SPLASH'' at LAX on Aerochannel website"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keading, Hilja American installation artists Artists from Berkeley, California American video artists Artists from California 1960 births Living people UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture alumni 20th-century American artists 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women