Sara Magenheimer: An Interview

Sara Magenheimer earned her MFA at Bard in 2013 and has since shown her work internationally in Canada, Iceland, the Czech Republic, and Denmark. Her cross-disciplinary practice plays with the juxtaposition between the form and content of language, exposing the absurdity of expected meanings.

In this interview, conducted by VDB Director Abina Manning, Magenheimer astutely reflects on her personal history. She starts at her roots growing up in a multicultural family in the suburbs of Philadelphia, discussing how this had a huge impact on her interest in deconstructing language, delving into the idea of “performing” language and culture. She talks about her feelings of alienation brought on by her struggle with class shifting when starting her academic career, leading her to start a band and tour the country before settling on graduate school. Magenheimer says she favors video for multiple reasons, but most interestingly because she feels “[I] can make an experience that unfolds in time and show you and then you can experience how I experience time.” She talks about her current work unpacking the signification of the female voice and its use in digital service products.