Andrea Fraser
born 1965 in Billingslives and works in Los Angeles
Andrea Fraser’s performances, video pieces and installations make her one of the most important representatives of institutional criticism. In her work she selects various aspects of the art industry and analyses them from a social, institutional and economic perspective.
Fraser became well-known in the mid-1980s for her gallery talks, in which she analysed the presentation formats, hierarchies and exclusion mechanisms that prevail in art institutions. Her site-specific performances took the form of humorous, but also serious or pseudo-scientific tours through museums, with Fraser assuming the alter ego of a stereotypical museum docent. The script was based on excerpts from documentations found in the museum archive or psychoanalytical and sociological sources.
The co-dependence of prominent artists and their patrons, the scope of media coverage on art events and the exhibition visitors’ conditioned behaviour are just some of the themes she addresses in her performances and video installations.