Hermine Freed

Biographie

Hermine Freed was born in New York in 1940 where she died in 1998. Freed originally studied painting at Cornell University and New York University, but was mainly active as a filmmaker. From 1974 she lectured on video art at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Her documentary films are concerned with women’s perception and self-image. In early videos, such as Two Faces (1973), Freed examined the relationship between that which is directly perceived and the recognition of things from previous experience. She worked with techniques such as the bluebox method, picture overlays, and electronic color changes, as well as with mirrors, optical devices, lenses, and magnifying glasses. Through changes and varying classifications, the artist offered new possibilities of seeing, which she simultaneously questioned. In 1973 Freed participated in the video festival Circuit at the Everson Museum of Art, New York, and Trigon in Graz, and in 1975 in the Projects: Video VI at the MoMA, Projections at the Whitney Museum and Video Art at the Serpentine Gallery in London. Hermine Freed was represented at the 10th Sao Paulo Biennial(1973) and the Documenta 6 (1977).