How a Real-Life Girl Fight From 1995 Found a Broader Audience

Courtesy of Tracey Lawrence Gallery

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You step into a sloppy, drunken, outdoor high-school party, and two girls, maybe 16 at the oldest, are fighting—really hauling off at each other, throwing fists. People stand around them in a loose circle, clutching bottles of beer, watching, mesmerized. Every so often, a broad-shouldered guy in a torn white T-shirt reaches into the fray, pulling the two apart. But no sooner is the brunette pulled away from the diminutive blonde being pummeled than a second girl steps in, continuing to pummel the blonde. The attacker uses her fists, punching in the face, the belly, wherever she can. This video by Jeremy Shaw is entitled 7 minutes, part of "Mouth Open, Teeth Showing," an exhibit of work from the collection of Bill and Ruth True. The footage is of an actual fight, filmed by the artist when he was in high school in 1995. Shaw reworked it in 2002, making it slow and bleary, sepia-toned, with no ambient sound, the scene overlaid with a melancholic soundtrack. Most likely, you'll come upon this piece—which is just inside the entrance to the Henry—in the middle of the action, and will have to wait for the loop to cycle back to make sense of the fight. Like the onlookers encircling these two young women, you'll be captive to the violent spectacle. As the man next to me said: "She must've slept with her boyfriend, right? What else could it be?" Henry Art Gallery. Ends Sept. 23.