WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution
Historical Survey Exhibits Women Artists of 1960s and '70s
Dec 31, 2008
Named punchily to evoke the acronym-happy political and social action groups of the era, WACK! covers the fertile period between 1965 and 1980 as the prime core of the international feminist art movement. Even within such a relatively tight timeframe, the scope of the show is vast, encompassing 120 artists and artist collectives from all over the world working in a diverse range of media.
Avant Garde Contemporary Art
One of the most striking aspects of the show is the preponderance of works in media and forms associated with the avant garde in contemporary art. Whether the result of an overtly feminist attempt to challenge, subvert or reject the traditionally male-dominated media of painting and sculpture, or simply a product of the experimental environment of the late ‘60s and 1970s, WACK! includes a high proportion of photography, video, assemblage, performance, conceptual, interactive and installation art.
Many of the exhibits tackle the necessary problem of representing performance art in a static environment. Several are represented via straightforward recording, both visual (Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece, 1965, filmed by the Maysles brothers) and audio (Hannah Wilke’s Intercourse With..., 1975), blurring the line between performance and audio-visual art.
Performance Art
Performance works are also represented with the aid of material objects. Louise Bourgeois’ A Banquet / A Fashion Show of Body Parts, 1978, is represented by juxtaposing photographs of the performance with one of the extraordinary, sculptural costumes used in the event. Similarly, Lorraine O’Grady’s Mlle Bourgeoisie Noire, 1980, is evoked with her white-glove gown displayed on a mannequin against a backdrop black and white photos serially documenting one of her gallery opening interventions.
More comprehensive is the recreation of Barbara T. Smith’s Feed Me, 1973, complete with rugs, cushions, food, books and wine in front of a television monitor screening black and white footage of the original performance, in which Smith spent a night on display in the bathroom of a San Francisco gallery. Overarching the visual exhibit is the original audio recording used on continuous loop in the performance, repeatedly exhorting visitors to "feed" the artist.
Collective Art
The interactive and collective natures of some of the works encapsulate one of the pervasive ethos of feminist endeavour: a rejection of the often pernicious cult of personality and elitist individualism. In keeping with this ethos, the show as a whole strives not to accentuate individual talents – conscientiously avoiding the pitfalls of star-building or the canonical approach typically identified with male cultural hegemony.
WACK! curator Connie Butler recounted to Amelia Jones in the March 2007 Frieze article “History Makers” how she and MOCA colleague Jenni Sorkin scoured topical materials like opening invitations to be sure to include artists outside the more celebrated body of feminist work. “[We] began with very well known figures and worked down to those that had completely dropped off the radar, and it was very interesting to see who came up from that ‘bottom’ list as we did our research, to become in some cases quite pivotal figures in the exhibition.”
WACK! is grouped around 18 themes, ranging from Goddess to Body Trauma, from Labour to Abstraction, Body As Medium to Knowledge As Power. In a show attempting to embody a movement so diverse, wide-ranging and ultimately ill-defined, one of the most effective groups proves to be Making Art History.
Feminist Art History
Pointedly, the grouping includes a portrait of Linda Nochlin, the eminent art historian who in a 1971 ARTnews essay famously posed the question “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” as well as Mary Beth Edelson’s iconic reimaginings of art historical masterpieces like The Last Supper overlaid with the images of women artists – literally inserting herself and her peers into art history.
After touring from MOCA to the National Museum of Women in Washington DC and PS1 in New York, WACK! is winding up its travelling exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery through January 11, 2009.
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