INDEPENDENT CURATORS INTERNATIONAL

MARTHA WILSON

Left: , from A Portfolio of Models, 1974 Center: DISBAND, performance at P.S.1, 1979 Right: Martha Wilson, Martha Wilson as , “Separated at Birth,” 2005. Photo by Dennis W. Ho

Introduction: Martha Wilson’s career, spanning forty years, encapsulates the contestations inherent in feminist and socially engaged practices. In her work and throughout her life, Wilson has explored how identity and positioning are not just self-defined or projected, but also negotiated. The complex nature of her work encompasses her activities as an artist, creating conceptually-based performances, videos, and photo-text compositions since the early 1970s; her position as the founder and director of the non-profit space Franklin Furnace; her collaboration with other women to form the group, DISBAND; and her key role in jump-starting the activist feminist art group, the Guerrilla Girls.

Written into and out of art history according to the theories and convictions of the time, Wilson first gained attention through Lucy Lippard, who contextualized her early work within the parameters of conceptual practice as well as among other women artists. A year later, in 1974, Wilson was denounced by Judy Chicago after a performance organized by Womanspace in for “irresponsible demagoguery.” She has also been regarded by many as prefiguring some of Judith Butler’s ideas on gender perfomativity though her practice, and more recently, in the words of the art critic, Holland Cotter, she was described as one of “the half-dozen most important people for art in downtown Manhattan in the 1970’s.”

Regarding gender and identity as fluid expression, Wilson has focused on fictive appearances and double transformations, while consistently asserting the artistic agency of herself and others she has championed. She was one of the very earliest artists to explore the effects of “camera presence” in self-representation, using masquerade as a form of resistance in manipulating both her internal

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sense of self and her outward appearance. Aligned with a feminist trajectory that is about gaining visibility, both her art practice and her social role have rendered her at once visible and invisible. In an early performance, Self Portrait in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1973, she posed as herself, inviting the audience to give their impressions of her, which then became part of the work, “creating” Martha Wilson in 1973. In other early works she posed as a man posing as a woman (Drag, 1972), and as a twenty-five year old artist trying to look like a fifty-year old woman, trying to look like she is twenty-five (Posturing: Age Transformation, 1973). From the 80s onward, she took a different approach ‘invading’ the personas of high profile women such as Barbara Bush and .

From forging ideas in isolation in Nova Scotia, to working in the epicenter of New York’s activist communities, Wilson has been a force of transformative change in her role as a disseminator of like- minded individuals’ work, as well as her innovations in playing with different identities. Indeed, Franklin Furnace’s thirty-three years of programming from 1976 to the present creates another negotiated self-portrait of sorts, demonstrating the scope of Wilson’s activity as director and the supportive environment she created for others. In sum, Wilson’s forty-year career, her attitude to collaboration, and openness to constantly redefining both personal and collective identities make her a central figure with which to collaborate on producing a series of exhibitions that selectively mine the various experimental practices, writings and shifting perspectives to explore current attitudes toward feminism, activism, and collaborative practice.

Collaborative Exhibition Model for Each Presenting Institution: This exhibition has been conceived to facilitate intensive collaborations between the curator(s) at each presenting institution and Martha Wilson. Working from the foundation of objects selected first by curator Peter Dykhuis in conversation with Wilson, each new curator is invited to select from this initial body of works, which provide an overview of the three overlapping stages of Wilson’s career, including a) explorations of her early solo photographic work; b) performance activities in New York, and c) thirty projects drawn from the , including a rich and compact body of documentation (videos, photographs, announcements, publications, and flyers) of projects by Eric Bogosian, Willie Cole, , Tehching Hsieh, , Louise Lawler, Ana Mendieta, , Dan Perjovschi, William Pope.L, Martha Rosler, and William Wegman, among many others.

A sourcebook of archival materials (newspaper cuttings, articles, etc.) that examines the constantly shifting perspectives on identity and contested feminisms, and features documentation of Wilson’s actions and work, will be produced to accompany the presentation. This book will be cumulative, offering a full sense of the complex identity of this artist and her time. It will include excerpts from formative texts that influenced Wilson, including ’s The Second Sex and Lucy Lippard’s article for Ms. Magazine. The publication will capture the work and perspective of a very influential and multi-faceted individual, thereby enriching the critical discourse on feminism.

Martha Wilson will work with curators of the presenting institutions to further explore ways in which identity and contested histories can be presented in the context of their local constituencies and according to each venue’s programming priorities. Martha will go to the institutions, work with the curator to select works from her own history and that of Franklin Furnace, as well as selecting works from the museum’s collection, or archive, or working with people in that community to develop an exhibition that explores the nature of visibility, or of what feminism means now, or the role of activist, socially engaged practice; the thematic focus will be determined by the local curator in discussion with Wilson. The size of each presentation will depend on space allotted by each venue, and works to be included will result from the conversations and selections made.

Background Information: Martha Wilson (b. 1947, ) is a pioneering feminist artist and gallery director, who over the past four decades has created innovative photographic and video works that explore her female

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subjectivity through role-playing, costume transformations, and “invasions” of other people’s personas. She began making these videos and photo/text works in the early 1970s when she was studying in Halifax in Nova Scotia, and further developed her performative and video-based practice after moving in 1974 to , embarking on a long career that would see her gain attention across the U.S. for her provocative appearances and works. In 1976 she also founded and then directed Franklin Furnace, an artist-run space that championed the exploration and promotion of artists’ books, , and video and performance art, further challenging institutional norms, the roles artists played within visual arts organizations, and expectations about what constituted acceptable art mediums.

Marvin Taylor, respected cultural historian and librarian, once wrote, “Martha Wilson IS Franklin Furnace!” The mission of Franklin Furnace is to present, preserve, interpret, proselytize and advocate on behalf of avant-garde art, especially forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, their ephemeral nature, or politically unpopular content. For twenty years, from 1976 to 1996, Franklin Furnace occupied a storefront space in in , presenting historical and contemporary exhibitions of artists’ books as well as temporary installation and performance art to the public. Since its inception, Franklin Furnace has served the local, national and international community of activist artists—artists who have addressed urgent subjects such as war, poverty, disease, racism, sexism, and homophobia. In the wake of the Culture Wars of the 1980s and 90s, Franklin Furnace came to be identified with artists’ rights to freedom of expression as a result of its presentation and support of the four artists who came to be known as the “NEA 4,” artists whose grants from the National Endowment for the Arts were revoked due to the subject matter of their art. Franklin Furnace “went virtual” on its 20th anniversary, providing artists with a digital platform for freedom of expression.

About the Initiating Curator, Peter Dykhuis: Peter Dykhuis is director/curator of the Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Prior to that he was director of the Anna Leonowens Gallery at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and a guest curator for the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. His most recent exhibition was Exalted Beings: Animal Relationships.

Basic Facts: Participation fee: $9,000 for 10 weeks, plus Martha Wilson’s travel and accommodations, and incoming shipping. Presentations longer than 10 weeks are charged a prorated fee increase.

Number of works: To be determined. Selections to be made from the original 58 works, which form the basis from which each local curator selects objects relevant to their own presentation, planned in collaboration with Martha Wilson. All crates will be shipped to each venue, and any unexhibited objects will be safely stored onsite.

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