Diana Thater: The Sympathetic Imagination at LACMA

Among the most important figures to emerge during the 1990s, Los Angeles–based artist Diana Thater creates groundbreaking installations that push the physical, optical, and conceptual boundaries of how moving images are experienced. Depicting a range of natural phenomena—such as the weightless, seamless, underwater world of dolphins; honeybees who communicate through dancing; and the surprising fortitude of animals in Chernobyl in the aftermath of the worst nuclear meltdown ever—her works explore the subjectivity of animals and the complex relationships humans have constructed with nature. Thater’s dynamic, immersive installations challenge and invert accepted positions and realities through the deployment of color, movement, scale, and architecture.