Laurel Nakadate: Say You Love Me at the Sert Gallery, at Harvard in Cambridge, Mass, will feature a selection of videos by the artist, filmmaker, and photographer Laurel Nakadate, whose work pushes the boundaries of voyeurism, exhibitionism, and vulnerability. In videos such as Happy Birthday, she performs a Lolita-like role in a series of sometimes unsettling fictional vignettes with mostly white, middle-aged men she meets through chance encounters. In others, including Good Morning Sunshine, she continues to exploit the unsavory yet titillating nature of interactions between older men and girls by voicing the role of a predator. Nakadate is always in control, whether in front of or behind the camera; yet her intention is not to make fun of her collaborators. Her videos are complicated but ultimately empathetic meditations on loneliness and longing. Laurel Nakadate: Say You Love Me is on view from November 18 to December 22 at Sert Gallery, Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA
