Video History Project

People

Aysha Quinn

An eclectic, multi-genre artist, Aysha Quinn's career has spanned a broad range of the dramatic and media arts - modeling, acting, and video and performance art. In the late 60's in N.Y.C, she acted and supported herself as a runway and fitting model (along with a 6-month stint as the backroom waitress at Max's Kansas City). In 1968, she relocated to L.A. and after a couple of years of acting and entertainment industry day jobs (Assistant to Gene Levitt at "Project UFO" and Assistant to Wally Amos while he was managing artists), she bought a black and white, 1/2" reel-to-reel video portapak and began shooting documentary lifestyle tapes in Venice, CA. She entered the arena of video art in 1975, pursuing her career as a tapemaker and expanding into video performance and sculptural installation. She emerged as one of the strongest and technically solid videomakers in the Southern California performance genre of the '70's. Her early concerns for the environment and holistic processes as subject matter have proven her one of the forerunners of the era of ecofeminism.

While living in Park City, Utah (1979-1983), she was instrumental in the establishment of the Utah Media Center and a major force behind the development of video in the U.S. Film & Video Festival (now the Sundance Festival). She continued her working relationship with the international arts community, while maintaining involvement with Utah theater and television. After moving to upstate N.Y., she held adjunct faculty positions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Dept. of the Arts, teaching both Acting and Video Art, (1985-1990) and at SUNY Purchase Dept. of Visual Arts (1991-1993), as well as participated in many artist-in-residence/visiting artist programs in secondary schools in N.Y. and in universities nationally. Additionally, in 1988-1989, she was the Communications/Cultural Specialist at Hospitality House Therapeutic Community in Albany where she created innovative therapeutic programs for drug addicted youth. She continues to work as an advocate for children's rights.

A great deal of her art work has been highly involved with intermedia. A major retrospective of her video work and video/computer graphic paintings was held at VideoBrasil in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1989. Quinn's work displays deep personal social and spiritual concerns in work that combines free flowing, improvisational camera work with state-of-the art post production technology, computer manipulated imagery and computer graphics. These concerns are in the forefront of her continued work with Native American issues through her involvement with New York State Iroquois and other indigenous peoples. The mother of two adult daughters, Quinn once again resides in New York City where she pursues her acting career and continues to work in video and performance/commentary. https://www.ayshaquinn.com
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"Aysha Quinn." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2012. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/aysha-quinn.

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Summary

Aysha Quinn is a multi-genre artist in modeling, acting, video and performance art; in the late 1960s she modeled in New York City and in 1968 moved to Los Angeles, buying a black-and-white 1/2" reel-to-reel video portapak. She entered video art in 1975, helped establish the Utah Media Center while in Park City, Utah (1979–1983) and supported the U.S. Film & Video Festival (now Sundance), had a retrospective at VideoBrasil in Sao Paulo in 1989, and continues work on Native American issues and children's rights while residing in New York City.

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Last modified 23 March 2012

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