Margia Kramer (born 1939) is an American documentary visual artist, writer and activist living in New York. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kramer recontextualized primary texts in a series of pioneering, interdisciplinary multi-media installations, videotapes, self-published books, and writings that focused on feminist, civil rights, civil liberties, censorship, and surveillance issues.
Overview Margia Kramer is an American documentary visual artist, writer and activist living in New York. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kramer recontextualized primary texts in a series of pioneering, interdisciplinary multi-media installations, videotapes, self-published books, and writings that focused on feminist, civil rights, civil liberties, censorship, and surveillance issues.Kramer, Margia. "Notes on Art as Intervention", Women Artists News, May 1980 (New York), p. 14f Her works have been widely exhibited, including over 15 one-person shows, and over 40 group exhibitions at (1979); the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (1980);Lippard, Lucy R."Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists," Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, (1980) the Museum of Modern Art (1981);Kramer, Margia. "Notes on Expression/Repression," Wedge: An Aesthetic Inquiry, Number 1, Summer 1982 (New York), p.30f the Whitney Museum of American Art (1984);Linker, Kate. "Margia Kramer, Progress (Memory)," in "Reviews, New York," Artforum, Vol.XXII, No.10, Summer 1984 (New York), p.89 Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE, 1987);Miller, Branda and Deborah Irmas et al. "Surveillance," LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions), Los Angeles, 1987 the Rotunda Gallery in Brooklyn, NY (1988); the List Visual Arts Center of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1989);Bright Deborah. "Military Madness," Afterimage, Vol. 17 No. 1, Summer 1989, (Rochester), p.18f San Francisco Artspace (1989); P.S. 1 (1992); The Institute for Contemporary Art (1993); the Dia Art Foundation (1993);Brian Wallis (ed) - "Democracy, A Project of Group Material," Dia Art Foundation, Discussions in Contemporary Culture, Number 5 (Seattle, 1990) the American Film Institute Video Festivals; and at museums, galleries, and alternative spaces in the U.S. and abroad. Kramer's videos and installation works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Allen Memorial Art Museum, New York Public Library, and in the private collection of Albert and Vera List, among other private and public collections.
In the 1970s and 1980s, using the United States' Freedom of Information Act (1967), Kramer sourced and requested, from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), specific documents and dossiers. Kramer presented these original FBI and CIA documents to the public in her art works, exactly as they were released to her, including redactions, and unchanged in text and format. To underscore the inherent repressiveness of the official government documents' deletions and redactions, Kramer's creative process included enlarging or reducing their scale, shifting their positive/negative ratios (documents were made into negatives and enlarged), and changing the materials upon which they were printed from paper to transparent film.Lippard, Lucy R. "A Different War, Vietnam in Art," (Whatcom Museum of History and Art, Seattle, 1990), p.111,114 Kramer transformed the hieratic, primary materials into installations of giant negative photostats on transparent film that were suspended on threads from ceilings to cast shadows on surrounding walls. The large scale, hanging black rectangles and trenchant white to black positive/negative forms where redactions and texts became transparent, combined to create a chilling but compelling atmosphere that was simultaneously oppressive and informative.
By making art that highlighted the specific contents of the documents she received, Kramer was able to demonstrate their undercover strategies, as well as their negative emotional and material impact on the lives of United States citizens protected by the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.Lippard, Lucy R. "Get the Message? A Decade of Art for Social Change (New York 1984), p.l40f These works centered on issues around feminism, censorship, civil liberties, and civil rights, all in the context of government surveillance. In particular, Kramer made a series of videos, documentary books, and installations on subjects of state counterintelligence programs ("cointelpro") including the actress Jean Seberg, and the artist, filmmaker, and impresario/provocateur Andy Warhol.Kramer, Margia. "The Warhol File," The Village Voice (New York), 5/17/88O'Pray, Michael (ed.) "Andy Warhol: Film Factory," London (British Film Institute) 1989
Photographs of major works
Window installation (exterior/interior), "Secret III," 1980, Printed Matter Bookstore, Lispenard Street, NYC. Pages from Jean Seberg's FBI File received by the artist from the FBI using the Freedom of Information Act. Enlarged pages from the file printed on transparent film, plus a self-published pamphlet with an introduction by the artist and including more facsimile pages from the File. Photograph by Margia Kramer.
Video installation with multi-media. Enlarged negative photostats on transparent film of facsimiles of 4 pages from the FBI File on Jean Seberg and a New York Times article, "Rehnquist To Hear Black Panther Case," 20 minute videotape "Freedom of Information Tape 1, Jean Seberg" (1980) by Margia Kramer. "Jean Seberg/The FBI/The Media," a pamphlet by Margia Kramer. Approximately 12" x 12." In the exhibition, "Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists,"Institute of Contemporary Art, London.Lucy R. Lippard, "Issue: Social Strategies by Women Artists," Institute of Contemporary Arts (London, 1980) Photograph by Margia Kramer.
Facsimiles of pages from the FBI File on Jean Seberg included copies of pages from relevant magazine and newspaper articles, an original 20 minute videotape "Freedom of Information Tape 1, Jean Seberg" by Margia Kramer, an original handbook, "Jean Seberg/The FBI/The Media" by Margia Kramer, enlarged negative photostats on transparent film of file pages, and positive photostats on paper of relevant magazine and newspaper articles. Approx. 25' x 25' The exhibition encompassed a Jean Seberg Film Festival held at the Donnell Library and Carnegie Hall Cinema, a special screening of Seberg as "St. Joan" at MOMA, and a panel discussion "Freedom of Information and the Arts," moderated by Margia Kramer, at the Donnell Library. Photograph by the Margia Kramer.
"Address Book Triptych" (1987-1988). Multi-media triptych. Enlarged negative photostats on transparent film of facsimiles of declassified, redacted pages of opponents of the Vietnam War. From the FBI files requested by the artist using the Freedom of Act. Teak frames with Plexiglas, 22" x 51" (3 panels).Lucy R. Lippard, "A Different War: Vietnam in Art" (Seattle 1990), pp. 111,114 Photograph by Margia Kramer.
"CIA Screen" (1987-1988). Multi-media four-panel folding screen. Enlarged negative photostats on transparent film of facsimile of a 4-page recruitment brochure published by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for its Clandestine Service. Teak frames with Plexiglas, 72" x 80" (4 panels). In the exhibition "Democracy and Politics," (1988) curated by Group Material at the Dia Art Foundation, New York."Democracy and Politics," Group Material, Dia Art Foundation (New York, 1988)Brian Wallis (ed.) "DEMOCRACY A Project of Group Material," Dia Art Foundation, Discussions in Contemporary Culture, Number 5 (Seattle, 1990) Photograph by the Margia Kramer.
"Looking At Militarism" (1989). Multi-media installation with film and video. Enlarged negative photostats on transparent film, with teak frames, of facsimiles of documents from MIT archives, government defense programs, war and peace initiatives, budget priorities, newspaper articles, and other relevant documents. Archival film footage from Hiroshima and Nagasaki showing the effects of nuclear war. Original video interviews by the artist on the subject of peace activism with MIT Professors Vera Kistiakowsky and Noam Chomsky. Approximately 40' x 50'. List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Marie Cieri et al. (with artist contributors). "19 Projects, Artists-in-Residence at the MIT List Visual Arts Center," Cambridge, Mass, 1996, p.133-144.Deborah Bright, "Military Madness," in Afterimage, Vol. 17 No. 1 (Rochester, Summer 1989), p.18f. Photograph by Margia Kramer.
"I a WO/MAN: The FBI File on Andy Warhol" (1989). Mixed media installation. Enlarged negative photostats on transparent film, with redwood frames, of facsimiles of redacted pages from Andy Warhol's FBI File — using the Freedom of Information Act, the artist requested that the file be declassified following Warhol's death. The large photostats were hung from the ceiling over 30' long, horizontal platform that concealed all but the screens of video monitors pointed towards the ceiling, continuously playing three, commercially released Warhol/Morrisey films: Flesh, Trash, and Heat. Pamphlet by Margia Kramer, "Andy Warhol et al. The FBI File on Andy Warhol" (New York, 1988). Approximately 25' x 40'. San Francisco Artspace.O'Pray, Michael (ed.) "Andy Warhol: Film Factory," London (British Film Institute, 1989) p.9, 178f. Includes "The Warhol File," by Margia Kramer from The Village Voice, May 1988.Kramer, Margia. "The Warhol File," The Village Voice (New York), 5/17/88 Photograph by Bonnie Burt.
Affiliations Kramer was among the founding members (along with Lucy Lippard) of Political Art Documentation/Distribution (PAD/D), and was a member of the editorial board of its magazine, Upfront, to which she contributed two articles.Kramer, Margia and Vanalyn Green. "Against Inner Exile," Upfront 2, Winter 1981/82 (New York), p.30fKramer, Margia. "Cracking the Concrete: Interventionist Posters," Upfront, Winter 1986/87 (New York), p.iiif PAD/D's archive is now housed in the library of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
Videography 1988 "Taking the Fifth" (1/2" 10 min.). Margia Kramer comments on footage from Oliver North's testimony during the Iran Contra Hearings (1987), contrasted with witness testimony during the Army-McCarthy Hearings (1954). Also, contains comments by Edward R. Murrow. This tape was part of Kramer's installation, "Unknown Secrets," a traveling exhibition about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, that toured museums, galleries, and alternative spaces throughout USA from 1988-1990 1989 "Looking at Militarism: Two Interviews "(1/2" 60 min.) Margia Kramer's interviews with activist Prof. Noam Chomsky of MIT and peace activist Prof. Vera Kistiakowsky of MIT, part of Kramer's 1989 multi-media installation "Looking at Militarism" at MIT 1985 "Freedom of Information Tape 3; The Guerrilla Manual for the Contras in Nicaragua" (3/4" 4 min.) Margia Kramer turns the pages and reads from a copy of the original manual distributed by the United States government in 1984 1984 "Progress (Memory) A Video Installation" (3/4" 5 min.) Margia Kramer videotapes, with voice-over, part of Kramer's 1984 video installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art 1983 "Freedom of Information Tape 2: Progress and Access" (3/4" 36 min.) Margia Kramer interviews several internet pioneers who are developing the World Wide Web. Includes an interview with the 1973 Noble Laureate in Economics, Wassily Leontief, Director of NYU's Institute for Economic Analysis, about automation and the future of work 1982 "No More Witchhunts, A Street Festival" (3/4" 15 min.) 1980. With hand-held camera, Kramer interviews participants while roaming the activist street fair that was held near The Cooper Union in New York. The festival was directed and curated by Margia Kramer with PAD/D and The Fund for Open Information and Accountability