Sable Elyse Smith (American, born 1986). <em>How We Tell Stories to Children</em>, 2015. Video, color, sound, 5 minutes 51 seconds, N/A. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Isaac Joseph, 2019.37. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2019.37_view01_SC.jpg)

Sable Elyse Smith (American, born 1986). How We Tell Stories to Children, 2015. Video, color, sound, 5 minutes 51 seconds, N/A. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Isaac Joseph, 2019.37. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2019.37_view01_SC.jpg)

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How We Tell Stories to Children

Sable Elyse Smith

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Sable Elyse Smith’s work seeks to make visible the interior and often unseen spaces and experiences of mass incarceration in the United States. How We Tell Stories to Children incorporates audio of the artist reading aloud, blurry found footage, and audio and video recordings made by the artist’s father while incarcerated, interweaving a personal, tender narrative of connection despite enforced distance. Its fleeting, fractured approach—where so much seems to happen off-screen—evokes the systematized silencing and erasure of the more than two million individuals incarcerated in the United States.

ARTIST Sable Elyse Smith, American, born 1986

MEDIUM Video, color, sound, 5 minutes 51 seconds

DATES 2015

DIMENSIONS N/A

COLLECTIONS Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 2019.37

CREDIT LINE Gift of Isaac Joseph

EXHIBITIONS

Art on the Stoop: Sunset Screenings

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Sable Elyse Smith (American, born 1986). How We Tell Stories to Children, 2015. Video, color, sound, 5 minutes 51 seconds, N/A. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Isaac Joseph, 2019.37. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2019.37_view01_SC.jpg)

EDITION Edition: 1 of 3 + 1 A.P.

IMAGE screen capture, Timestamp: 00:08, 2019.37_view01_SC.jpg. Brooklyn Museum, 2020

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How We Tell Stories to Children

Sable Elyse Smith

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art

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