Performing Woman

Going along with the themes of performance and using the body as a source of liberation for women, I wanted to take a look at the role of performance art in feminism.

Feminist performance art came about in the 1970s because "it was personal, immediate, and highly effective in communicating an alternative vision of women and their power in the world."

Cheri Gualke, an L.A. performance artist said: "Performance is not a difficult concept to us [women]. We're on stage every moment of our lives. Acting like women. Performance is a declaration of self--of who one is...and in performance we found an art form that was young without the tradition of painting or sculpture. Without the traditions governed by men. The shoe fit, and so, like Cinderella, we ran with it."

Here are a few examples of what she means.

This piece done by Eleanor Antin is called "Carving: A Traditional Sculpture" (1972). Antin put herself on a strict diet and literally carved herself into a sculpture in order to critique "the social pressure women feel to make their bodies conform to an aesthetic or cultural ideal."

In "The Mythic Being," Adrian Piper put on a drag performance in the streets and subways of New York City. She meant to "incite public reaction to issues of race, gender and class."

How does performance art differ from poetry in conveying feminist theory? How do the two work together? If everything is a performance (according to Butler and the Gurlesque poets), what makes this art? Overall, is performance art successful--does using the female body in this way liberate women or exploit her and detract from the feminist agenda?

(Citations drawn from: http://www.walkerart.org/archive/C/B473811508113F0F6169.htm)