FUNDAMENTAL FEMINISM.

WACK! ART AND THE FEMINIST REVOLUTION

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

LOS ANGELES

MARCH 4-JULY 16, 2007

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles presents one of the most interesting and thoughtful exhibitions in its history, "WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution." Curated by Connie Butler, "WACK!"--an invented term meant to express the energy and idealism of a moment in time--provides an overview of first generation contemporary feminist art, which includes works made between 1965 and 1980 from 120 artists (all of whom are women) from twenty-one countries. The exhibition positions feminism as a critical force that creates dynamic new ways of organizing culture. Butler suggests that feminist art practice has brought about fundamental social and artistic change, resonating beyond modernist art paradigms. Feminist art upends the primary artist-centric preoccupation with form and the stereotype of the heroic individual male artist.

What becomes clear through "WACK!" is that feminist sensibility is a multifaceted, evolving work in progress; the exhibition represents the dynamic first phase of an ongoing project. Current practitioners (both men and women) have distilled the early lessons and inspirations of feminist practice into diverse art-making strategies. As with all pioneering efforts, a debt is owed to the first generation for kicking open the doors of opportunity in 1965. (Some of these artists worked in relative isolation, others found working in community and through collaborative efforts as a means to connect in an art world that was exclusive and sexist.) Forty-two years later, it would seem the overall situation has changed in terms of equity and visibility for women. Yet, a recent survey of solo shows by women at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City shows the percentage remains dismally low. The appearance of the Guerilla Girls at MOMA in their now-famous 1985 intervention on behalf of equity for women in our cultural institutions is even more relevant today.

In one sense, struggle is an atmosphere permeating "WACK!" The female body is the battleground and the preferred medium where artists develop new ideas and approaches to feminist issues. Some of the work and documentation react to oppressive male culture. The call to action is to overthrow dead and out-of-date paradigms. Cosey Fanni Tutti's sly send-up of Marcel Duchamp's work goes right to the heart of the matter, taking on the demigod of contemporary art practice with biting humor. The importance of the body to representation and the confluence of art and politics are signifiers of these times. Other works seek to validate "women's work" by employing materials not associated with arts at that time, such as Faith Wilding's crocheted environment, "Womb Room" (1972).

Barbara Smith, one of the show's senior and truly revolutionary artists, described and contextualized feminist practice as part of its time. The confluence of anti-Vietnam War protests, the North American civil rights movement, and the activation of a disenfranchised youth culture through music and arts was the broader cultural milieu in which the feminist revolution thrived. The revolution was joined and informed by this heady mixture of uncompromising social investigation that characterizes the 1960s and 1970s.

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In a strong parallel to the sense of struggle, "WACK!" has an intense quality of joy, optimism, and idealism. It can be found in the relationship between the individual and the collective, the sense of community and belonging, connectedness and the offering of respect, and acknowledgement of a large population of disenfranchised communities. This celebratory legacy still flourishes in current performance art, collaborative projects, and community-based art practice that melds social action and service with artistic objectives.

Methodologies are an important component of the work in "WACK!" and one significant addition to arts and culture was the widespread implementation of "strategies of intervention." A profound example is Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz's 1977 public performance, "In Mourning and In Rage," a media event expressing grief and anger over the rape and murder of several women in Los Angeles by the notorious Hillside Strangler. In the performance, nine mourners dressed in black arrived in a hearse at the steps of LA City Hall where they spoke about women as victims of violence. Lacy and Labowitz redirected the media into showing images of empowered women, as opposed to the usual images of fearful and terrorized victims.

"WACK!" is filled with video and photography, both as a means of documentation and perhaps as an outcome of a rejection of traditional painting and sculpture as emblematic of the male domain. This also reflects the embrace of new media and technology as part of the overall atmosphere of exploration and the "anything goes" sensibility of the 1960s. Artists realized that all possibilities were on the table and, in many cases, feminist practitioners not only jumped in, they jumped first. In the sculptural work by Kirsten Justesen, "Sculpture #2" (1969), on a cardboard box sits a photograph of a naked woman who appears to be stuffed into the box. This single image powerfully conveys the levels of violence, containment, and repression of women with regard to their bodies and their spirits throughout all cultures.

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An abundance of documentation of actions and performance is also included in the exhibition. Many artists embraced strategies of extreme risk and violent actions. Scarification and painful physical feats of endurance provoked audiences then, as they still do. But there clearly is a deeper meaning behind these actions that keeps them from being merely sensationalist bloodletting. Marina Abramovic's work is connected to blood rituals and shamanistic practices about which she has conducted extensive research outside of western culture, Gina Pane's photograph of cutting herself and performing other seemingly self-destructive physical actions carries intellectual weight because of its contextualization within feminist thought. Without this tie, physical actions can become unhinged and easily dismissed as examples of personal dysfunction. Such is not the case with "WACK!," where there is serious purpose and intention in even the toughest of works shown.

"WACK!" also exhibits a preoccupation with the individual--almost no content addresses family and children--and, in some ways, this reflects a cultural and class bias. Work reflecting the issues around these topics is out there and would make for an interesting second installment. Nevertheless, it is an impressive and inspirational exhibition.

CLAYTON CAMPBELL is the Los Angeles correspondent for Flash Art magazine, and the Santa Monica editor for Contemporary magazine.