Sara Greenberger Rafferty, Still from Mono, 2021; Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Print

Sara Greenberger Rafferty produces image-based, mixed media works that cross video, installation, and photography. Inspired by a variety of sources that includes comedy, pop culture, and fashion, her practice considers the ever-changing implications for photography in the digital era, and is driven by an ongoing examination of contemporary and mid-twentieth century visual culture. The artist’s work is in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Yale University Art Museum, New Haven; among others. 

The image for this limited edition print is composed of film stills from Mono (2014), a work that was filmed inside the Breuer building and originally screened as part of the Whitney Biennial. In the video, actor Susie Sokol mimics the gestures and verbal mannerisms of three late-night comedy hosts: Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Joan Rivers. Sokol, wearing a suit and a low ponytail, moves through a variety of gendered stances and comedic postures, as a way of isolating the comics’ gestures so that they appear radically strange.

Of this benefit series for ART FOR CHANGE, Rafferty notes, “All of the presenters included are vital to the arts ecosystem in New York City, where I have lived and voraciously consumed culture for the past 21 years, and hope to for the next 21 years as well.”