WACK! ART AND THE FEMINIST REVOLUTION
4 March – 16 July 2007
www.moca.org
The Museum of
Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is currently hosting an exhaustive group
exhibition of feminist artists, whose work was made or occurred between 1965
and 1980. Entitled ‘WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution’ (WACK is an
invented acronym designed to express the energy and idealism of its moment
in history), the show, curated by Connie Butler and featuring the work of
119 artists from 21 countries, is one of the most challenging presentations
to be seen here in years. Essentially an overview of first-generation
contemporary feminist art, ‘WACK!’ seeks to position feminism as a
critically important and dynamic force that continues to offer innovative
ways of organising culture. Its principal premise is that feminism ushered
in a fundamental change, which resonated far beyond the confines of the
modernist art institution, upending the primary preoccupation with form, the
model of the heroic male artist and the dominance of art as a commodified
object in a capital-driven marketplace.
Both the exhibition and catalogue present the movement as a global
phenomenon, yet, in practice, it seemed to radiate outwards as an
Anglo-North-American initiative, finding far-flung colleagues in other
outposts. For Barbara Smith, one of the show’s senior and truly
revolutionary artists, feminist practice belonged to the broader cultural
milieu of anti-Vietnam war protests, the civil rights movement and
disenfranchised youth and music culture of the 1960s and 70s. The exhibition
also portrays feminist sensibility as a multi-faceted and evolving
work-in-progress, with the work on display representing a dynamic first
phase. Current practitioners (both men and women), who have distilled early
experiments into diverse art-making strategies, owe a substantial debt to
the pioneering generation for kicking open the doors of opportunity, while
younger artists may realise that creative freedom and the privilege to work
unimpeded cannot be taken for granted.
A sense of struggle permeates ‘WACK!’. In the effort to overthrow dead
paradigms and the oppression of male culture, the body became paramount,
serving as representation, medium and battleground. However, much of the
work also evinces an intense quality of joy and optimism, expressed in the
relationship between the individual and the collective, the sense of
community and belonging, and the offering of respect and acknowledgement to
excluded communities. Above all, it recognises the intrinsic worth of women.
This celebratory legacy still flourishes in performance, collaborative
projects and community-based practice that meld social action with artistic
objectives. One of the most important contributions was made by intervention
strategies, which have become part of every contemporary artist’s toolbox.
In an early example, Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz staged a public art
event – In Mourning and In Rage (1977) – on the steps of Los Angeles City
Hall, to demonstrate grief and rage over the rape and murder of several
women by the notorious Hillside Strangler. Arriving in a hearse, dressed in
black and standing seven feet tall, nine mourners paid tribute to female
targets of violence, and urged the media to publicise images of women as
empowered individuals, rather than as terrorised victims. The message
remains ever-relevant, especially in southern California, where the murder
and rape of women on the US-Mexican border is widespread.
Much of the work in ‘WACK!’ is devoted to video and photography, which
represented both a means of documentation and an embrace of new technology
as part of the spirit of exploration that characterised the period, as well
as, no doubt, the need to repudiate painting and sculpture as emblematic of
the male domain. All possibilities were on the table, and feminist
practitioners were often the first to seize new opportunities. A wonderful
work, Sculpture II (1968) by the Danish artist Kirsten Justesen, which
consists of a photograph of a nude woman attached to a cardboard box that
she appears to be stuffed into, eloquently conveys the physical and
spiritual repression that women have suffered in almost all cultures. A
recent performance in Los Angeles at the 18th Street Arts Center by
Alesandra Santos, in which she crouched naked for two hours in a Plexiglas
box filled with milk, attests to the legacy of this kind of imagery and its
ongoing importance for young female artists.
Other artists directly embraced risk and violent action, subjecting their
bodies to scarring and painful feats of endurance. For many, such as Marina
Abramovic or Gina Pane, these activities are connected to blood rituals and
shamanistic practices in non-Western cultures. What makes them significant
is the philosophical and social values by which they are underpinned,
without which they might seem unhinged, easily dismissed as examples of
individual dysfunction.
‘WACK’ demonstrates that there is serious purpose in even the most extreme
work, and that feminism generated substantial critical ideas that continue
to resonate today. With this impressive and inspirational exhibition, MOCA
has raised the bar, revealing what other museums either can’t or wouldn’t.
CLAYTON CAMPBELL