Tina Keane (born 1940) is a British artist who has worked with film, video, digital media, and performance, and been a forerunner of multimedia art in the UK. Reflecting a feminist perspective, her works have often explored gender roles, sexuality, and political concerns. She has stated that her work is primarily about "identity and play".

Biography

Keane studied at the Hammersmith College of Art and at the Sir John Cass School of Art (1967–70) and received an MA in Independent Film and Video from the

London College of Printing The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation, film, graphic design, photography and sound arts. It has approximately ...

(1995–96). She was a founder member of the non-profit women’s film distribution organization Circles - Women in Distribution. Keane also curated and programmed exhibitions and screenings including The New Pluralism exhibition at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

, with Michael O'Pray, in 1985. Keane has been an important influence on successive generations of artists in the UK as a teacher at

Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design Central Saint Martins is a public tertiary art school in London, England. It is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. It offers full-time courses at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and a variety of shor ...

, London, where she was Lecturer in Film & Video since 1982 and Research Fellow from 2003 to 2012. According to

Malcolm Le Grice Malcolm Le Grice (born May 1940, in Plymouth, United Kingdom) is a British artist known for his avant-garde film work. Biography The British Film Institute claims that he "is probably the most influential modernist filmmaker in British cinema". ...

, "During the 1970s and ’80s, the teaching of women artists – including Tina Keane, Anna Thew, Anne Tallentire, Joanna Greenhill and Pam Skelton –was one of Saint Martins’ major contributions to art education. Their influence helped create a lasting shift in the gender profile in British art, and Saint Martins in general maintained a committed concern for gender, ethnicity and sexual politics throughout the Thatcher years.” Notable students who were mentored by Keane include

Sandra Lahire Sandra Lahire (November 19, 1950 - July 27, 2001) was a central figure in the experimental feminist filmmaking that emerged in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s. Life and career Lahire studied Philosophy at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne ( ...

, Sarah Turner and Isaac Julien. Her 1978 multimedia work, ''She'', presented at the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the R ...

, London, in 1978 was an early example of performance that incorporated live video and slide projections. Transparencies of neon signs, poetry and images of shop windows featuring mannequins were projected on a wall before which Keane performed, while video of the performance played on monitors surmounted with neon texts. Keane has said that the work brought into play "the actual and the recorded, the shop dummy, and the person, the illusion and the reality" ''Transposition'', first presented at the Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, in 1992, used the body as a screen with video projected onto the naked backs of men as they glide sideways standing on a travelator. Keane subsequently re-edited the piece into a double screen video installation for the inaugural Tanks programme at

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

, London, in 2012. In 2015, Keane was one of the recipients of the 21st annual Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Artists, the largest individual awards made to visual artists and composers in the UK. Her pioneering, poetic film, 'Faded Wallpaper', was acquired by Tate in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keane, Tina 1940 births Living people 20th-century British women artists 21st-century British women artists Feminist artists Alumni of the London College of Communication British art teachers