Sue de Beer

Sue de Beer (U.S., b. 1973) The Dark Hearts, 2003–2004

Two-channel video and sculptural installation Henry Art Gallery, gift of Charlotte Feng Ford, 2021.61

Sue de Beer is an American artist whose work lies at the intersection of film, sculpture, and installation. In The Dark Hearts, de Beer has fused a two-channel projection with a makeshift pink convertible, inviting viewers into the space of her film. On screen, a teenage love story in four acts unfolds, a budding romance between a goth boy and a preppy girl. A sense of dread and possibility, horror and delight characteristic of teenage years pervades. As American cultural critic Bruce Hainley has written: “The horror? The horror is the world they live in, which necessitates, instead of diary keeping, making ‘morgue entries’ to figure out their lives. This is the world that’s been left to them: darknesses transacting in between boy parts and girl parts, in between loving and leaving, in between teen loneliness and adult existence.“