Tanya as a Bandit, 1989
Information about the artwork
- MaterialSilk screen on aluminium, fabric
- Dimensions180 x 120 x 2 cm
- Year of acquisition1990
- Inventory numberUAB 322
- On viewGround floor
- Copyright© Cady Noland. Photo: Haydar Koyupinar, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich
More about the artwork
“Tanya as a Bandit” belongs to a group of works in which Cady Noland addressed the abduction of Patricia (Patty) Hearst. The daughter of a US media mogul was kidnapped in 1974 by the left-wing terrorist group Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). However, she soon expressed solidarity with her kidnappers’ political causes. The staged photograph in front of an SLA flag with which Hearst announced her new identity as a militant fighter under the nom de guerre Tanya, circulated widely in the media after she had taken part in an armed bank robbery. Noland’s work simultaneously utilizes and criticizes the strategies of the tabloid press, which react to such news in a way that is as exaggerated as it is sensational.