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Woman's Art, Inc.

Conceptual Art and Feminism: Martha Rosler, Adrian Piper, Eleanor Antin, and Martha
Wilson
Author(s): Jayne Wark
Source: Woman's Art Journal, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Spring - Summer, 2001), pp. 44-50
Published by: Woman's Art, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1358731
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CONCEPTUAL
ART AND FEMINISM
MarthaRosier,AdrianPiper, Eleanor Antin, and MarthaWilson
By Jayne Wark

W hen feminist art emerged around 1970, Conceptualart tions, its lack of totalizingvision, [and] its criticaldevotionto the
was the prevailingart world practice,yet the relation- factualconditionsof artisticproductionand reception,"it resulted
ship between the two remainslargelyunexplored.'Al- in a dystopian"disenchantmentwith those politicalmaster-narra-
though many early feminists rejected Conceptualart, some, like tives that empoweredmost of 20th-centuryavant-gardeart."7Ei-
MarthaRosier,AdrianPiper, EleanorAntin, and MarthaWilson, ther way, what is evident here is a profound ambivalenceabout
both drew upon and engagedin a criticalreassessmentof its con- art'scapacityto bringaboutliberatingchange.
cepts. These are not the only women artistswhose worksfromthe At preciselythis historicalmoment,however,new formsof po-
early 1970s can be consideredwithinthe parametersof Conceptu- litical understanding began to enter the art world, primarily
alism, but what distinguishes them is their adaptation of its throughthe agencies of the feminist and civil rights movements.
methodologicalpremises to their growing awarenessof the vital Though aligned broadly with the New Left, the emancipatory
strugglesof the civil rightsand feministmovements,which in turn strugglesof these agenciesmade the participantsawareof the lim-
constituted a crucial shift in the notion of how art could have a itationsof class-orientedpoliticsin accountingfor how oppression
criticalsocialand politicalresonance. and ideologicalcontrolare embeddedwithin all formsof socialin-
Conceptualartistsconsideredthemselvesculturalcritics-of the stitutions-from the publicnessof the art world to the privacyof
prevailingmodesof artproductionon the one hand,andof its larger home and family-and are thus experienced socially and at the
system of display,reception, and commodificationon the other.2 subjectivelevel of the individual.This new politicalunderstanding
Withrespectto the the prevailingmodesof artproduction,it was an led inevitablyto a skepticismamongartistslike Rosler,Piper,An-
aesthetic negation and refusal of modernism. As the historian tin, and Wilson aboutthe adequacyof Conceptualart,with its in-
AlexanderAlberronoted,this self-reflexiveness carried"theimplicit sularfocus on aesthetic debate, to articulatetheir emerging con-
message...that artcan only make meaningful statementsaboutitself cerns with problematic social relations. They did, nevertheless,
and the systems that determine its limits."3With regard to the sys- recognize the potential of subjecting Conceptual art'sstrategies
tem of display,reception,and commodification,Conceptualartists and methodologicalpremisesto modificationsthat would advance
soughtto establisha link between art practiceand the ideological the fundamentallydifferentcriticalethos informingtheirwork.
and institutionalstructuresin which it is embedded.Describedby One of the earliestinstancesof such a modificationis evidentin
BenjaminBuchlohas "institutional critique,"and associatedprimar- the workof MarthaRosler(b. 1943). Born,raised,and educatedin
ily with artistslike Dan Graham,MarcelBroodthaers,Daniel Bu- Brooklyn(she received a B.A. from BrooklynCollege in 1965),
ren, and Hans Haacke, this Conceptualapproachendeavoredto Rosler attributesthe strong public and political focus of all her
stripawaythe last vestigesof artistictranscendenceand exposethe workto her yeshivaeducationand her immersionas a teenagerin
previouslysuppressedfallacyof the sphereof artisticproductionas the protest culture and leftist politics of the period.8Even at this
separatefrom the conditionsof instrumentalityand consumption earlyage, Roslerwas exhibitingthe multiplicityof intereststhathas
thatbearuponall aspectsof socialandculturalexperience.4 characterizedher work:She was involvedin New Yorkpoetrycir-
But if this trajectorywithin Conceptual art signaled a move cles, paintingin an AbstractExpressioniststyle,takingphotographs
awayfrom self-reflexivepreoccupations,it must also be acknowl- on the street,and makingphotographiccollages.9These photomon-
edged that the political scope of its critique, at least in North tages, influencedby MaxErnst'sSurrealistcollage novellasas well
America,was circumscribedby certainlimitationsand restrictions. as JamesRosenquist'spaintedPop collages,used strategiesof dis-
Coincidingwith the deepening social crises of the late 1960s and junctionand distantiationto createsociallycriticalimages.?1 For ex-
1970s, this was a time when manyartistsconfrontedthe dilemma ample,in the series Body Beautiful,or BeautyKnowsNo Pain,be-
as to whetherthey had a responsibilityto engage directlywith the gun in 1965, lingerieadvertisementsare cut and pastedwith body
contingenciesof social and political realityin their art. Although partsfrom Playboymagazineto revealnot only the objectification
this dilemmawas extensivelydebated, Thomas Crow has argued of femalesexualitybut its role as commoditysign as well.'l
that "anypersuasivefusing between art and 1960s activismwas These early photomontagesestablishedboth the formaltech-
unlikely from the start. The conceptual demands of advanced nique and political critique Rosler employed in another series
artisticpractice had become so elevated that anythingless than from this period, Bringingthe WarHome: House Beautiful.Exe-
full-time application of one's resources was unlikely to make a cuted at the height of the antiwarmovement(1969-72) and origi-
mark."5Crow attributedthe general reticence to reprise the en- nally published in antiwarjournals, these montages seamlessly
gage relationshipbetween art and politics that had characterized spliced photographsof elegant homes with grim images of the
the historical avant-gardeto a "starkchoice...between the de- Vietnamwar,cut fromthe pages of HouseBeautifuland Life mag-
mandsof 'the Movement'and the demandsof a careerin art,how- azines, respectively.'2Rosler'sseries calls up direct associations
ever radicallyconceived."6Buchloh, on the other hand, argued with Conceptualart'suse of photographyto questionnotionsof vi-
that, because "ConceptualArtwas distinguishedby its acute sense suality,pictorialism,and depictionby subjectingit to a self-reflex-
of discursiveand institutionallimitations,its self-imposedrestric- ive critiqueaimedboth to distanceand complicateits relationship
WOMAN'S ARTJOURNAL
to existingtraditionsof art and documentaryphotography.Specifi- The socialcrisesof the earlyseventiesalsohad a profoundeffect
cally, Rosler'simages address the "problematicof art-photojour- on the workof AdrianPiper (b. 1948, New YorkCity).A preco-
nalism,"which Jeff Wall identified as crucial to the discourse of cious studentwith a diverserangeof interests-literature, philoso-
photoconceptualism.13 They draw some of their componentsfrom phy, music,the visualarts-Piper enrolledin New York'sSchoolof
that quintessentialmodel of photojournalism,Life magazine,yet Visual Arts in 1966. During the summer of 1967 she also took
they are permeatedby a skepticism,even a cynicism,about such courses at the City College of New York,where she met Vito Ac-
fallaciesas "truth"or "mythicsymbolism,"which aboundin docu- conci and encountereda culturalmilieu that fosteredher develop-
mentaryphotography,especially war photography.'4Rosler'scut- ing interest in Conceptual art. In 1968 Piper began to produce
and-pastemethod may also be alignedwith what Wall referredto Conceptualworks such as the book folio Here and Now and the
as the deliberate"de-skilling,"or aesthetic reductivism,in photo- typescriptwork ConcreteInfinity 6" Square,where the emphasis
conceptualism.'5Although Rosler'stechnique aligns her with the was shifted awayfrom the object or medium to the idea of art as
historicalavant-gardetraditionof appropriationand montage (via declarative proposition that generates its own self-reflexive
Hannah Hoch), her placing of journalisticimages taken from the system.23By 1969, already gaining recognition as a Conceptual
chaotictumult of a contemporarywar theaterwithin meticulously artist,Piper had some of her pieces publishedin Acconci's0 to 9
ordereddomesticinteriorscreatesnot only a clash of imagesbut a magazine,with others included in group exhibitionsin New York
criticalconfusionbetween the static, ideal tableau of commercial and Europe.24
pictorialphotographyand the instantaneityand unpredictabilityof In spite of this earlysuccess, Piper later recountedin her auto-
the documentary's"jitteryflow of events."'6 biographicalstudy,Talkingto Myself,that everythingchanged for
This line of analysisreveals something of the extent to which her following a series of events that took place in the spring of
Rosler'sseries drawsupon Conceptualism'spremises,yet sheds no 1970: the invasion of Cambodia,the resurgence of the women's
light on what is actuallycontainedwithin these images. First and movement, the brutal attacks against antiwarprotesters at Kent
foremostthey are antiwarpictures,thoughby no means are they a State and JacksonState universities,and the student rebellion at
mere exhortationon the tragedyof war.Playingupon the cliche of City College, where she had just begun undergraduatestudies in
Vietnamas the "living-room war,"Rosler'sshatteringintrusionof its philosophy(she received her B.A. in 1974).25Her initial response
belligerents and victims into the serene enclaves of suburbando- was to revisethe workshe had plannedfor the "Information" show
mesticity exposes the normallyobscured,but irrevocable"webof at the Museum of Moder Art and replace her submissionto the
connectionsbetween distantwarsof conquestand the more subtle "ConceptualArt and ConceptualAspects"show at the New York
and ongoing class war at home."'7A terrifiedVietnamesewoman CulturalCenterwith the followingstatement:
carriesher dead babyup the stairsof a well appointedsplit-levelin
one image,while in another,Red StripeKitchen(1969-72;Fig. 1), Theworkoriginallyintendedforthis spacehas beenwithdrawn....
armedAmericansoldiersroot aroundin a pristinekitchen.In the I submitits absenceas evidenceof the inabilityof art expressionto
assumeddomesticsanctuaryof the middle-classhome, we are con- havemeaningfulexistenceunderconditionsotherthanthoseof
frontedwith our own complicityin the bourgeoisaspirationsthat peace, equality,truthandfreedom.26
lay at the heartof the war.Nor does the complicityof the artworld
in sustainingthese aspirationsescape Rosler'switheringscrutiny. As Piper reflectedon her "positionas an artist,a woman,and a
Also in the series is House Beautiful:Giacometti(1969-72),an im- black,"she found herself unable to expressnew concerns"inany
age of an art collector'sluxurioushome, with period furniture,Sur- aestheticterms I had at my disposal."Her need to take accountof
realistcoffee table, Giacomettisculpture,and paintingsby Delau- what was going on aroundher led her to reject art that referred
nay and Cezanne.The slaughterof the "YellowPeril"that lies just backto what she called"conditionsof separateness,order,exclusiv-
outsidethe windowsstarklyconveysboth the cost and the justifica- ity, and the stabilityof easily-acceptedfunctionalidentitieswhich
tion for condoninga war aimed to protect such wealth and privi- no longerexist."27 She grewincreasinglydissatisfiedwith the notion
lege by beating back the communistmenace. Rosier assertshere of art as an autonomous,"Kantian'thingin itself,'with its isolated
what would become a recurrenttheme in her art:The forces of internalrelationships,and self-determiningesthetic standards."28
dominationand oppressionplayed out within the privacyof home Rejectingthe idea of art as a mediationbetween the artist'scre-
and family are inseparable from our more conventional under- ativeprocessandthe viewer'spassivereceptionof it, Piperwantedto
standingof theirimpactin the publicsphere.l1 confrontthe viewerdirectlywith her own unpredictableand uncon-
The shockingjuxtapositionsin Bringingthe War Home strip trollablepresenceso as to induce a reactionor change.Her firstef-
away the conventions of the liberal documentary, thus clearly fortin this directionwas an unannouncedperformancein April1970
aligningRosier'sserieswith a Conceptualproblematizingof repre- at Max'sKansasCity,a popularhang-outfor the New Yorkartworld.
sentationand pictorialism."9 Yet the artist'sinsistenceupon subject Wearinga blindfold,ear plugs,nose plug, and gloves,Piperwalked
matteris at odds with what Buchlohidentified as photoconceptu- aroundthe crowdedbar for an hour,speakingto no one (Fig. 2).29
alism'sambitionto situate "itself as much outside of all conven- Her dual role as artistand art work allowedthe entire artmaking
tions of artphotographyas outside of those of the venerabletradi- processto be internalizedin her ratherthan in a separateand dis-
tion of documentaryphotography,least of all that of 'concerned' crete object.Her self-objectification
turnedher into a spectacle,but,
photography."20Nor do Rosler's images aspire to what Wall de- paradoxically, this enabledher to functionas a subjectiveagencyca-
scribed as the notion of photoconceptualismas "a model of art pable of affectingchangein others.She referredto this agencyas a
whose subjectmatteris the idea of art."21 Indeed, their point is not catalyticforce that concentratedthe entire artisticexperienceinto a
to escape or find alternativesto the burden of depiction, but to momentof confrontationin which "theworkhas no meaningor in-
frame the conceptualand ideologicalnature of representationit- dependentexistenceoutsideof its functionas a mediumof change.
self. Rosler'swar series thus stands at that historicaljuncturebe- It exists only as a catalytic agent between myself and the viewer."30
tween Conceptualism'saggressions against pictorialismand the By the fall of 1970, Piper had developed these ideas further in
criticalrestorationof pictorialism"asa centralcategoryof contem- her Catalysis performances. These took place in ordinary public
poraryartby around1974."22 settings because she wanted to preserve the impact and uncatego-
SPRING/ SUMMER2001
0
rized nature of the confrontationand al, a shiftmore decisivethanin anyoth-
avoid any associationwith an art con- er Conceptualartworkof the period.35
text, which she felt would "preparethe AlthoughFoodfor the Spirit was a
viewer to be catalyzed,"therebyelicit- privateperformance,Piper'sdisavowal
ing a predetermined set of responses - _mmr I of artisticautonomysoon led her to re-
and makingactualcatalysisimpossible. turn to the problematicsof the exter-
In these works, Piper carriedout nor- nal world and what would become an
mal, everydayactivitiesbut with alter- j. !.I ongoing preoccupationwith the social
ationsto her appearance,rangingfrom :, negotiationof racialidentity.Recogniz-
the bizarreto the grotesque.In Cataly- '. '2? iing that even her passive presence
sis I she rode the subwayat rush hour i; . { posed a threatto a racistsociety,Piper
and went browsing in a bookstore .l? j'
. A soughtto engage the viewerin a direct
wearing clothes that had soaked for a '' i ' 'interaction
5lle with her own subjectivity.6
week in a putrid mixture of vinegar, ' : :i:" As she explained: "Iidentifymyself...as
.:_r '^'
eggs, milk,and cod-liveroil. In Cataly- a conceptual artist working with politi-
sis III she painted her clothes, at- cal concepts in a variety of media."37
tacheda "WETPAINT"sign, andwent Moreover,she describesher approach
shoppingat Macy's,while in Catalysis as a "methodological individualism"
1V she walked around Manhattanand that ensures that the idea/workcannot
rode the bus with a towel stuffed into be separatedas a discrete object from
her mouth and trailingdown her front. X herself as the conceptual generatorof
-
In CatalysisV she signed out books at - its meaning.?
New York'sDonnell Library with a 'm
ML
As is evident from Rosler's and
concealed tape recorder playing loud -- _' Piper's work, Conceptual art offered
belches at full volume.Whatinterested .~ _H | women artists a potent resource of
Piper in the Catalysis series was not methods and strategies. But, at the
Fig. 1. MarthaRosler,RedStriFe Kitchen (1969-72) color
only "letting art lurk in the midst of same time, Conceptualart'sdominant
ige, 24"x 20.
things,"but being both the subjectand photomontc preoccupationsposed considerablelim-
object of an art capable of provoking itationsto the articulationof manyfem-
an active and undetermined response.31 Although people some- inist concerns,such as Rosler'sinsistenceupon the previouslyunex-
times reactedto her streetperformanceswith hostility,Piperfound aminedlinksbetween the public sphere of politicsand the private
that if she addressedpeople in ordinaryways (for example,by ask- sphere of domestic life. Similarly,the subjective basis of Piper's
ing for the time or apologizingfor bumping into someone), she work ran counter to Conceptualism'sprohibitionagainstsubject-
could elicit a normal response. This was enlighteningto her be- centeredinquiryas partof its generalcritiqueof modernistindivid-
causeit showedshe could transcend"thedifferencesI was present- ualism.39 This prohibitionwas and is problematicfor manywomen
ing to them by making that kind of contact."32 artistspoliticizedby feminismbecause,as NancyMillerhas pointed
Piper'sstudyof philosophyenabledher to articulateher artistic out, it perhaps"prematurely foreclosesthe questionof identityfor
concernsmore preciselyas an investigationof subject-objectrela- them."4In fact,manyfeministsaresuspiciousaboutthe motivations
tions between "myselfas solipsisticobjectinheringin the reflective of those who proclaim,froma positionof powerand privilege,"the
consciousnessof an externalaudience death of the author,"at precisely that
or subject;and my own self-conscious- historicalmoment "whenwomen have
ness of me as an object,as the objectof justbegunto remembertheirselvesand
my self-consciousness."33In Food for claiman agenticsubjectivity."'4 Milleral-
the Spirit (1971), Piper documented so noted that the deathof the authorial
the metaphysicaland physicalchanges subjectwasalignedwiththe decentered,
she underwentduringa periodof isola- disoriginated, and deinstitutionalized
tion and fasting while reading Im- positionof the feminineat a time when,
manuelKant'sCritiqueof PureReason. for women, "the conditionof dispersal
In responseto her anxietythat she was and fragmentation that Barthesvalorizes
disappearing into a state of Kantian (andfetishizes)is not to be achievedbut
self-transcendence, she periodically to be overcome."42 Thus, for women in
photographedher physicalself, either the early1970s,questionsof subjectivity
nude or nearlyso, in front of a mirror and "otherness"were just beginningto
while reading passages from the Cri- takeon crucialsignificance.
tique into a tape recorder.By thus doc-
umentingherself as the embodied ob- 'or EleanorFinemanAntin(b. 1935,
ject of her philosophicalinquiry,Piper _*J'
. New YorkCity), the questions of
simultaneouslymade explicit her own subjectivityand othernessled to an on-
particularizedsubjecthood as a black going inquiry into the diverse forma-
woman.34 As MauriceBergernoted,this tions and representationsof identity."
marked a shift away from the aesthetic Fig. 2. Adrian Piper, Untitled
fPerfc>rmanceat Max's Kansas City, As
early as 1965 Antin had explored the
privilegingof the mind over the body NYC(1970),black-and-v vhitephotograph, 16" x 16". "essence" of identity in her Blood of a
and of the intellectualoverthe corpore- Photo: Ros emary Mayer. Poet Box, a work in the Fluxus mode,

0 WOMAN'S ARTJOURNAL
containing 100 glass micro- was being disclaimedwithin
scope slides of poets' blood in artisticand intellectualcircles,
a wooden box. The work whatwas at stakewas not sim-
-
refers to Jean Cocteau's film, R--onald n FineArts.ply the right to reassertthat
Le Sang d'un poete (1930), privilegebut the need to fore-
which exalted the fantastical ~~- ' stall closure on subject-cen-
' teredinquiryitself.
inner life of the creative
artist, but, by contrast, Antin's In Antin's case, this in-
blood smears reveal nothing .... dayi quirytook shapethroughher
about the individual poets.44 ; strategicuse of performance
Concluding that biology was i" 1-
to problematize subjectivity
.
neither identity nor destiny, ^i by treating it as an unstable
Antin began to investigate categorytenuously negotiat-
identity as a confluence or - H ed within both private and
fragile link between self-defi- public social structures. By
nition and the forces of social 1972 she had created a
interaction. After moving to gallery of performanceper-
San Diego in 1969,45 Antin sonae derived from a com-
produced California Lives, a Fig. 3. EleanorAntin, Portraitsof Eight New YorkWomen (1970), plex blend of autobiography
series of "portraits" of individ- 1998 installation,RonaldFeldtmanFine Arts, New York. and fiction that she referred
uals (some real and some in- Photo:Zind/Freemont.Courrtes)y RonaldFeldmanFineArts. to as a "mythological ma-
vented), each consisting of ar- chine...capable of callingup
tifacts of consumer or domestic culture and a typed character and defining my self...[as] the Ballerina, the King, the Black
sketch. Although these portraits were cryptic, their rebuslike config- Movie Star and the Nurse."49By slipping into and out of these
urations anticipated the narrative structure and psychological explo- characters,both as artist and person, Antin confounded the dis-
ration that dominated her later work. tinctionsbetween art and life, fictionand reality,actingand being.
In 1970, with the advent of the feminist movement in the arts, One day she was the King,swillingbeer with his surfer-subjectsat
Antin made a second series, Portraits of Eight New York Women, SolanaBeach;on anothershe was Nurse Eleanor,aidingthe sick
which she installed in a room at New York'sChelsea Hotel (Fig. 3). and wounded in the CrimeanWar,or the great prima ballerina,
Like the California Lives series, these portraits were not represen- EleanoraAntinova,preparingfor her New Yorkpremiere.The job
tational likenesses but were assemblages composed of objects sug- of the Black Movie Starwas not to be, but to act, and so in that
gesting the character and professional role of each woman. In this role she played all of her other characters,thus blurringreality
case, all the portraits were of real people, several of whom, like with layerupon layerof fiction.5?
Yvonne Rainer, were well known art world figures. This evocation The fluidityof Antin'smovementsbetween these shiftingposi-
of both their personal and professional attributes directly chal- tionsunderscoredher rejectionof "theusualaidsof self-definition-
lenged the "selective traditions" of an art world that invalidated sex,age, talent,time, andspace"as "merelytyrannicallimitationsup-
the private and the personal-especially as they pertained to on my freedomof choice."5'The autobiographical originsof Antin's
women-as "unproductive" and irrelevant to the "public" impor- charactersboundthem to herself,but no matterhow completethe
tance of art.4 Moreover, the fact that these were portraits in ab- transformation, a gap alwaysremainedbetweenherselfandher per-
sentia may also allude to the suppression of women's self-repre- sonaethatsignifiedher subjectivitynot as beingbut as the agencyof
sentation with this system of authority in which "woman" was being. This foregroundingof imposturewas characteristicof much
ubiquitously present as the object of representation, but only as "a feministperformanceat the time.As RobynBrentanowrote:
mediating sign for the male."4
This absence of presence Concern with showing the con-
was, of course, one of the defin- tingencies of identity and repre-
ing issues for feminist artists sentation of women led to a kind
struggling for recognition and of doubly-aspected performance
self-definition during the 1970s. in which the artist was both her-
Although much of the work... self and other. In many works,
from that period has been repu- the performerconveyed both an
diated for its supposedly essen- air of authenticity andfalseness
tializing belief that a "true" fe- I ? of her inscribed identity. Perfor-
male identity or "sensibility" *j mance used disruptive strategies
could be discovered, a closer to reveal the multiplicity of
scrutiny reveals that feminist
. . selves required of women in dai-
thinking about questions of ly life.52
identity was far more complex
and sophisticated than such re- By thus counterposing authen-
ductive criticism suggests.48In- ticity and artifice and dissem-
deed, given that women were bling fixed distinctions be-
seeking political emancipation l tween being and acting, Antin
and agency just as the privilege Fig.4. MarthaWilson, BreeastFormsPermutated(1972), asserted the growing conviction
of subjectivity and authorship black-and-whitephotoEgraph and text, 4/2" x 6". that femininity was simultane-

SPRING/ SUMMER2001 0
ously a role that women played and a position that determined [because]the man is made attractiveby the woman...captivation
how they experiencedthe world. is emasculation."In other pieces she investigatedthe characteris-
Antin was among the nine women included in "Reconsidering tics and limitationsof her own identityby subjectingherself to the
the Object of Art."This is ironic, since her insistence upon irra- objectifyingprocess of self-scrutiny.In PaintedLady (1972), she
tionalism, narrative,fiction, and embodiment went against the used makeupto maskher own featuresso that a "rangeof possible
structural/linguisticgrain of Conceptual art, with its general re- expression, of unaccustomed attitudes can fill this vacuum; ab-
pression of those practices that were "of performance, of the sence of self is the free space in which expressionplays."57
body."53 But inasmuchas Antin stressed temporalityand process Wilson concluded from these investigationsthat since identity
over object-making,her performativework was fully commensu- was not singularor fixed,"artmaking [couldbe] an identity-making
rate with Conceptualism'sbroader tendencies as chronicled in process....I could generate a new self out of the absencethat was
1973 by Lucy Lippardin Six Years:The Dematerializationof the left when my boyfriends'ideas, my teachers',and my parents'ideas
Art Objectfrom1966 to 1972. Yet, as Lippardnoted more recent- were subtracted."58This realization focused her attention on the dif-
ly, even though the "inexpensive,ephemeral,unintimidatingchar- ference between how she felt duringthe processof transformation
acter of the Conceptual mediums themselves...encouraged and how she appearedin the resultingphotographs.In 1974 she
women to participate,"and they were given a degree of supportby documentedthe processof transformation itselfin a video entitledI
male colleagues, that supportwas often in the form of "lip ser- Make Up the Imageof My Perfection/IMake Up the Imageof My
vice."54In reality,women artistsstill faced formidabledifficulties Deformity. Using make-up, the optimum tool of feminine per-
in havingtheirworkrecognizedas legitimateart at all, let alone as fectibility,Wilson sat before the camera and made herself up to
legitimateeven withinthe broadestdefinitionsof Conceptualart. bring out her best featuresand then her worst. Her (spoken)de-
scriptionsof her actions underscoredthe tenuousness of any as-
T his strugglefor legitimacywas played out by MarthaWilson sumed congruence between identity and appearance.Identity is
(b. 1947, Philadelphia)at the Nova ScotiaCollege of Art and thus seen as a kindof representation,as the masqueradeof feminin-
Design (NSCAD), Halifax,duringthe early 1970s,when it was an ity that film theoristMaryAnn Doane describedas the artificeof
important center of Conceptual art. Having graduatedin 1969 the surface,"thedecorativelayerwhichconcealsa non-identity."59
with a majorin English literatureand a minor in art from Wilm- Despite the significanceof Wilson'sachievements,she felt treat-
ington College in Ohio, Wilson came to Halifaxto do graduate ed like an outsiderat NSCAD,.that"therewas no recognitionthat
work at Dalhousie University. She completed her M.A., but [whatshe was doing]could be art,let alone that it was art."Critical
droppedout of the Ph.D. programin 1971 aftera disputewith her commentaryamountedto suchinsightsas, "seriousartis only made
supervisor,and then took a job teachingEnglish at NSCAD. The in blackand white, and women don'tmakeit anyway."Duringone
Conceptualorientationat NSCAD opened up new possibilitiesfor of his visits, even Vito Acconci dismissedher work as "self-indul-
Wilson,who said "itwas an unbelievablerevelationthat visualart gent and irrelevant."6Wilson first received recognition for her
could consist of language."55 She immediatelybegan makinglan- work in 1973, when Lippardincluded Breast Forms Permutated
guage-basedart works in the spare, laconic mode of people like (1972;Fig. 4) in "c. 7,500"at the CaliforniaInstituteof the Artsin
LawrenceWeiner or John Baldessari,but her work differed radi- Valencia, the first and only exhibition of Conceptual art by
cally from theirs in that hers dealt not with abstractaestheticcon- women.61 Like all the works in this exhibition,Breast Forms is a
cepts but with propositionsabout genetic and cultural relation- postcardwork.On the backis a textualpropositionreferringto var-
shipsbetween parentsand offspring: ious shapesof women'sbreasts(conical,spherical,pendulous,etc.),
while the front consists of photographsof nine different pairs of
Unknown Piece: A Womanunder ether has a child in a large breastsarrangedin a modernistgridwith the theoretically"perfect
hospital.Whenshe comesto, she is permittedto select the child set"in the center.While BreastFormsmaybe seen as a character-
she thinksis hersfrom amongthe babiesin the nursery. istic exampleof an early feminist parodyof the objectificationof
women'sbodies, it also functionedas a critiqueof Conceptualism's
Double Piece: Two couples agree to have babies and trade them. "rigorouseliminationof visuality"at a time when women artists
Thereal parentsare in no way permittedto interferewith the up- were beginningto assert the politicalimportanceof investigating
bringingof theirchild. and problematizing representation itself.62
The worksof MarthaRosier,AdrianPiper,EleanorAntin, and
Alongwith eight other linguisticpropositions,these two examples MarthaWilsonindicatethat there indeed existeda vitalinteraction
were part of a series Wilsoncalled the ChauvinisticPieces (1971), between the preceptsof Conceptualart and emergingfeministef-
a title that is itself an indictmentof the alienationshe experienced fortsto challengeprevailingvaluesandauthoritieswithinandbeyond
as a womanand artist.5 the artworld.The extentto whichthese artistsdrewuponConceptu-
By 1972 Wilson was using herself as the subject of an inquiry alism'saestheticand criticalstrategiesnegates any predilectionto
into identityformations.Thoughno feministcommunityexistedat portraythe crucialdifferencesin their concernsand approachesas
the time in Halifax,and certainlynot at the College of Art and De- simplyconstitutinga counter-paradigmatic practice.Nevertheless,it
sign, Wilson'sexplorationsof gender constructsas fluid and poten- is evidentthat the prioritiesof the Conceptualparadigmmilitated
tially transformativeexactlyparalleledthe kind of work feminist againstthe articulationof manyfeministconcerns.This underlying
artistswere then doing acrossNorth America.Her worksconsist- conflictof valueswas sometimesexpressedwith open hostility,but it
ed of textualpropositionsaboutidentityor appearance,whichWil- alsoexistedat moresubtlelevels.For one thing,Conceptualart'sde-
son enactedby makingherselfup in differentguises and then doc- nialof subject-centeredinquiryandthe downgrading of the personal
umenting the outcome in color photographs.In Posturing:Drag was problematicfor new socialgroupsseekingto articulatetheir ex-
(1972), Wilson set out to discoverhow "formdeterminesfeeling" periencesand redressexistingrelationshipsof power and inequity.
by posing as a manwho had made himselfup as a woman,while in For another,Conceptualart'semphasison the perceptualwithdrawal
Captivatinga Man (1972), she posed as a man enhancedby make- of visualitywas not conduciveto questionsabout how women and
up in "areversalof the meansby which a womancaptivatesa man othersare seen withinthe "regimesof representation"thatstructure

0 WOMAN'S ARTJOURNAL
power and powerlessnessalong lines of difference.63And finally,in 1988), 155-99. See also, Alberro,"Dialecticsof EverydayLife,"76.
orderfor those womento makeconnectionsbetweentheiraesthetic 11. Thisseries is illustratedin Positionsin the LifeWorld,147-51.
practiceand the socialand politicalimperativesthat informedit, it 12. Amongthe publicationswhere Rosler'santiwarmontagesappeared
was necessaryto moveoutsidethe abstract,self-reflexive,and disem- was Goodbye to All That(October13, 1970), a feministnewspaperin
bodiedinvestigations thathaddominatedConceptualart. San Diego. See LauraCottingham,"TheInadequacyof Seeing and Believ-
Althoughthe worksof Rosier,Piper,Antin, and Wilson deviat- ing: TheArtof MarthaRosier,"in M. Catherinede Zegher,ed., Insidethe
ed substantiallyfrom what some consider to be Conceptualism's Visible(Cambridge,Mass.: MITPress,1995), 163. In 1968, Rosierhad
centralpremises,that deviationis preciselythe point. In order for movedto San Diego, where she workedin the publishingindustryand ex-
hitherto silenced voices to find a place from which to speak, the panded her politicalinvolvementby speakingto highschool and communi-
dominant cultural narrativesand discourses must be dislocated. ty groupson antiwarand feministissues.ThroughsuchworkRosierdevel-
The dialoguethese voices took up with Conceptualart can tell us oped hercommitment to addressvariouspublics,an ideal she has dis-
much, not only abouthow certainof its strategieswere adaptedto cussed in numerousessays, suchas "TheBirthand Deathof the Viewer:
the workof these four artistsbut abouthow their workchallenged On the PublicFunctionof Art,"in Hal Foster,ed., Discussionsin Contempo-
its limitationsand questionedsome of its principalvalues.? raryCulture(Seattle:Bay Press,1987), 9-15. InOctober 1991, ten im-
ages fromthe antiwarserieswere exhibitedin an artcontextforthe first
NOTES time,at the SimonWatsonGalleryin New York.
1. In 1995 AnnGoldsteinand Anne Rorimercurated"Reconsidering 13. JeffWall, "'Marksof Indifference': Aspectsof Photographyin, or as,
the Objectof Art:1965-1975," an exhibitionof Conceptualart held at the ConceptualArt,"in Reconsideringthe Objectof Art,251.
LosAngelesMuseumof Contemporary Art.Fifty-five
artistswere included, 14. BrianWallis, "LivingRoomWar,"Art in America(February
of whom ninewere women, but,as DavidJoselitnoted in his reviewof the 1992), 105.
exhibitionand catalogueof the same name (Cambridge,Mass.:M.I.T. 15. Wall, "'Marksof Indifference,'" 258-63.
Press,1995), no analysiswas made of how the women'smethods,strate- 16. Ibid.,249.
gies, and goals may have differedfromthose of theirmale counterparts; 17. Wallis,"LivingRoomWar,"107.
see "ObjectLessons,"Artin America(February1996), 70. Thebest source 18. See Jan Weinstock,"Interview withMarthaRosier,"October(Sum-
of information aboutearly feministand Conceptualart is LucyLippard, mer 1981), 90. Significantly, as Rosiertold me duringan interview,May
Fromthe Center:FeministEssayson Women'sArt(New York:Dutton, 4, 1996, she producedthese images at herown kitchentable afterdoing
1976). the washing up and puttingher son to bed. Rosiersays thatthe domestic
2. See also the publishedroundtablediscussions,"TheReceptionof the interiorsin the antiwarseries also relateto the feministconcernsinvokedin
Sixties,"October(Summer1994), 3-21, and "ConceptualArtand the Re- BodyBeautiful,or BeautyKnowsNo Pain;see Buchloh,"AConversation
ceptionof Duchamp,"October(Fall1994), 127-46. withMarthaRosier,"47.
3. AlexanderAlberro,in reviewof "MelBochner:ThoughtMade Visi- 19. See also MarthaRosier,"In,Aroundand Afterthoughts (On Docu-
ble 1966-1973," Artforum(February1996), 81. mentaryPhotography)," ThreeWorks(Halifax:Nova ScotiaCollege of Art
4. BenjaminBuchloh,"Conceptual Art1962-1969: FromtheAestheticof and Design, 1981), 59-86.
Administration to theCritiqueof Institutions,"
October(Winter1990), 136-43. 20. Buchloh,"ConceptualArt 1962-1969," 122.
5. ThomasCrow,TheRiseof the Sixties:Americanand EuropeanArtin 21. Wall, "'Marksof Indifference,"' 258.
the Eraof Dissent(New York:Abrams,1996), 179. Thequestionof the 22. Ibid.,266.
artist'spoliticalrolewas discussedin numerouspublicationsfromthe peri- 23. AdrianPiper,"TheLogicof Modernism,"FlashArt January-Febru-
od, including"TheArtistand Politics:A Symposium," and PhilipLeider, ary, 1993), 58. ForPiper'searlythoughtson Conceptualart, see "MyArt
"HowI SpentMy SummerVacation,"Artforum (September1970), 35-39, Education"(1968), in her Outof Order,Outof Sight,I (Cambridge,Mass:
and 40-49, respectively;DoreAshton,"Responseto Crisisin American MITPress,1996), 3-7.
Art,"ArtinAmerical(anuary-February 1969), 24-35; LucyLippard,"The 24. See AdrianPiper"Untitled," 0 to 9 (January1969), 49-52, and
Dilemma,"ArtsMagazine (November1970), 27-29; JeanneSiegel, "Carl "Untitled," 0 to 9 (July1969), 79-81. Herworkwas includedin exhibi-
Andre:Artworker, in an InterviewwithJeanneSiegel,"StudioInternational tionsat the DawnGalleryand PaulaCooperGalleryin New York,and at
(November1970), 175-79, and "TheRoleof the Artistin Today'sSociety," the StadtischesMuseumLeverkusen, and the KunsthalleBern.See Adrian
CollegeArtJournal(Summer1975), 327-31. See also the proceedingsof Piper,"PersonalChronology,"in MauriceBerger,ed., AdrianPiper:A Ret-
the debates of the ArtWorkers'Coalition,ArtWorkers'CoalitionOpen rospective(Baltimore: Universityof Maryland,1999), 188.
Hearing,April 10, 1969 (New York:ArtWorkers'Coalition,1969). 25. AdrianPiper,Talkingto Myself:TheOngoingAutobiographyof an
6. Crow,Riseof the Sixties,180. ArtObject(Bari,Italy:MarilenaBonomo,1975), 38-39.
7. Buchloh,"ConceptualArt 1962-1969," 141. 26. Quoted in LucyLippard,Six Years:TheDematerialization of the
8. See BenjaminBuchloh,"AConversationwithMarthaRosier,"in ArtObject from 1966 to 1972 (New York:Praeger,1973), 168. Piper's
Catherinede Zegher,ed., MarthaRosier:Positionsin the LifeWorld(Cam- statementwas not publishedin the ConceptualArtand Conceptual
bridge, Mass.: MITPress,1998), 23-30, the cataloguefor her 1998-2000 Aspectscatalogue.
travelingexhibitorganized by the IkonGallery,Birmingham, England. 27. Piper,Talkingto Myself,39-40, 53.
9. Rosler'sworkfromthe 1960s to the presenthas encompassedper- 28. Quotedin LucyLippard,"TwoProposals:LucyLippardPresentsthe
formance,video, photography,installation,postcards,and books, as well Ideasof AdrianPiperand EleanorAntin,"ArtandArtists(March1972), 45.
as criticalwriting.Herrefusalto develop a signaturestyleor adhere to a 29. Piper'sUntitled Performance at Max'sKansasCity,NYCwas document-
particularmediumhas renderedhersomewhatinvisibleto the institutional- ed in six black-and-white photographstakenby herfriend,RosemaryMayer.
ized artworldand itscriticalapparatuses;see AlexanderAlberro,"TheDi- 30. Piper,Talkingto Myself,53.
alecticsof EverydayLife";in ibid., 79. 31. Ibid.,54, 47.
10. Fora discussionof the importancefor feministartistsof such "dis- 32. AdrianPiper,in Lippard,"Catalysis:An InterviewwithAdrian
identificatory" practices,derivedultimatelyfromBertoltBrecht'stheoriesof Piper,"Fromthe Center,170. Photographsof the Catalysisperformances
spectatorship,see GriseldaPollock,"Screeningthe Seventies,Sexuality were takenby RosemaryMayer.
and Representation," in her Visionand Difference(London:Routledge, 33. Piper,Talkingto Myself,62.

SPRING/ SUMMER2001
0
34. Thephotographicdocumentsand artist'sstatementof thisperfor- 48. Thecriticaland historicalreceptionof early feministart has recently
mancewere firstpublishedin AdrianPiper,"Foodforthe Spirit,July begunto be reassessed.See especially,AmeliaJones, "The'SexualPoli-
1971," HighPerformance (Spring1981), 34-35. InLorraine O'Grady's tics'of TheDinnerParty:A CriticalContext,"in SexualPolitics:JudyChica-
estimation,Piper'snakedself-portraits signaled"thecatalyticmomentfor go's DinnerPartyin Feminist ArtHistory(Berkeley:University of California,
the subjectiveblacknude";see "Olympia's Maid,"inJoannaFrueh, 1996), 84-1 18. While thisreassessmentis needed, Jones'sargumentis
CassandraLanger,and ArleneRaven,eds., New FeministCriticism: Art, problematic.First,it is contradictoryin thatshe maintainsthatthe ap-
Identity,Action(New York:HarperCollins,1994), 155. praisalof 1970s feminismas "essentializing" is false since it belies the ac-
35. Berger,"Stylesof RadicalWill:AdrianPiperand the IndexicalPre- tualmultiplicityof feministartof thatperiod,while she also arguesthatthe
sent,"in AdrianPiper:A Retrospective,18. "essentialism" of Chicago and others"wasa crucialcomponentof 1970s
36. Piper'sengagementwithKantianphilosophyservesas the founda- identitypolitics."(99) Further,she attributesthe derogatoryuse of thisterm
tionalgroundingof herwork.She wantsto reconcileKant'smoraltheories, to Britishfeministart historianslikeGriseldaPollockand LisaTickner,who,
whichpositthe self as dependentupona rationallyconsistentand coherent Jonesclaims,used it as a basis for rejecting"1970s feministart fromthe
view of the worldthatenables experienceto be assimilatedintoa priori UnitedStates."(98) Inmyview, not only does thisrepresentthe worstkind
categories,withherawarenessof how people respondto difference(e.g., of partisannationalism,it replicatesthe kindof oversimplification Jonesos-
race, gender,class) by makingwhat she calls "pseudorational defences." tensiblyseeks to redress.
Piper'sintentis certainlynot to celebratedifference,and she repudiates 49. EleanorAntin,"Dialoguewitha Medium,"Art-Rite (Autumn1974),
those deconstructionistswho denigrateKant'svaluesof universality because 23-24.
they "ignoremuchof whatwe all have in commonas humanbeings, the 50. As HowardFox has noted, Antin"retiredthe BlackMovie Staraf-
cognitivecapacitieswe actuallyshare."See Berger,"TheCritiqueof Pure ter one exhibition,quicklyrealizingthe limitationsof makingskincolor a
Racism:An InterviewwithAdrianPiper,"in AdrianPiper:A Retrospective, determinantof character,"althoughshe did reintroduceblacknessin the
91. Fora poststructuralistreadingof Piper'swork,see AmeliaJones, Body personaof EleanorAntinova,the BlackRussianballerina;see his Eleanor
Art:Performing the Subject(Minneapolis:Universityof Minnesota,1998), Antin,72.
162. Jonesacknowledgesthe conflictbetweenPiper'sviews and herown, 51. Quoted in Lippard,"MakingUp: Role-Playing and Transformation in
303, n. 43. Women'sArt,"Fromthe Center,105.
37. LetterfromAdrianPiper,April28, 1996. 52. RobynBrentano,"Outsidethe Frame:Performance, Art,and Life,"in
38. AdrianPiper,"Xenophobiaand the IndexicalPresent,"in Craig B. Outsidethe Frame:Performance and the Object(Cleveland:Cleveland
Littleand MarkO'Brien,eds., ReimagingAmerica:TheArtsof Social CenterforContemporary Art, 1994), 49-50.
Change (Philadelphia: New SocietyPublishers,1990), 289. 53. Buchloh,"TheReceptionof the Sixties,"18. As FrazerWardhas
39. Therejectionof the primacyof individualsubjectivity has been fre- noted, however,therewas considerableoverlapbetweenConceptualand
quentlynotedin recentdiscussionsof Conceptualart;see, forexample,the performanceart, especiallyin the early 1970s; see his "SomeRelations
roundtablediscussion"ConceptualArtand the Receptionof Duchamp," betweenConceptualand Performance Art,"CollegeArtJournal(Winter
140-44, and Buchloh,"ConceptualArt 1962-1969," 139-40. 1997), 36-40.
40. Nancy K. Miller,"Changingthe Subject:Authorship,Writing,and 54. Lippard,"EscapeAttempts,"in Reconsideringthe Objectof Art,23.
the Reader,"in Teresade Lauretis, ed., FeministStudies/CriticalStudies Lippard's views are echoed by Piper:"Inthosedays, conceptualartwas a
(Bloomington: IndianaUniversity,1986), 106. Miller'sconcernsare also white machoenclave, a fun-houserefractionof the Euroethnic equationof
valid, of course,forothersociallymarginalizedgroups. intellectwithmasculinity. ChristineKozlovand I were the onlywomenad-
41. See Jane Flax,"Remembering the Selves:Isthe RepressedGen- mitted,and we were perceivedas mascots";see her "SomeVeryForward
dered?"MichiganQuarterlyReview,26: 1 (1987), 106; SusanBrown, Remarks,in Outof Order,Outof Sight,I, xxxv.
"Whereis the Sex in PoliticalTheory?"Women& Politics,7: 1 (1987), 55. InterviewwithMarthaWilson,April12, 1995.
3-23; and Nancy Hartsock,"Rethinking Modernism:Minorityvs. Majority 56. TheChauvinisticPieces,whichconsistof two pages of typescript,
Theories,"CulturalCritique(Fall1987), 187-206. were includedin the exhibition"ConceptualArt...TheNSCADConnection,
42. Miller,"Changingthe Subject,"109. 1967-1973" (AnnaLeonowensGallery,Nova ScotiaCollege of Artand
43. Antinreceiveda B.A. in 1958 fromthe CityCollege of New York, Design, Halifax,1994).
where she studiedcreativewritingand artwhile also takingactingclasses. 57. Thesequotationsare fromthe accompanyingtextsforthese pieces,
She also studiedphenomenologyat the New SchoolforSocial Research. whichwere providedto me by the artist.Fora moredetaileddiscussionof
Thisnexusof interestsis centralto Antin'swork. Wilson'searlywork,see myarticle,"MarthaWilson:Not TakingItat Face
44. Antinunderscoredthe enigmaticindeterminacy of the Bloodof a Value,"CameraObscura,45 (2000).
PoetBox in an interviewwithCindyNemser:"Youcouldread the namesof 58. Quotedin Lippard,"MakingUp,"in Fromthe Center,106.
the poetswiththese smearsof blood on a slide. Ifyou thoughttherewas a 59. MaryAnn Doane, "Filmand the Masquerade:Theorisingthe Fe-
relationbetweenthe blood and the nametherewas one; if you didn'tthere male Spectator,"Screen(September/October1982), 81.
wasn't."See CindyNemser,"EleanorAntin,"in ArtTalk:Conversations with 60. InterviewwithWilson.
12 WomenArtists(New York:CharlesScribner's Sons, 1975), 278. 61. Thetitle,"c. 7,500," comes fromthe approximatepopulationof
45. Antinmovedto San Diego withher husband,DavidAntin,who had the town. Lippardcurateda seriesof exhibitionsduringthisperiodtitledto
accepted a positionteachingcriticalstudiesat the Universityof California, coincidewiththe venue'spopulation.
San Diego. She has been on the facultytheresince 1975. HerCalifornia 62. Buchloh,"ConceptualArt 1962-1969," 107.
Livesare brieflydiscussedand illustratedin HowardN. Fox, EleanorAntin 63. JanetWolff,"Reinstating Corporeality:Feminismand BodyPolitics,"
(LosAngeles:LosAngelesCountyMuseumof Art, 1999), 26-31. in her FeminineSentences:Essayson Womenand Culture(Berkeley:Uni-
46. FrancisFrascina,"ThePoliticsof Representation," in PaulWood, et versityof California,1990), 138.
al., Modernismin Dispute:ArtSince the Forties(New Haven:YaleUniversi-
ty, 1993), 82, 165. Jayne Wark, Associate Professor of Art History at the Nova Scotia
47. LisaTickner,"TheBodyPolitic:FemaleSexualityand WomenArtists College of Art and Design in Halifax,is the author of articles on video
since 1970," in RosemaryBetterton,ed., LookingOn: Imagesof Femininity and performance art and is writing a book on the history of feminist
in the VisualArtsand Media (London:Pandora,1987), 237. performancein Canadaand the United States.

0 WOMAN'S ART JOURNAL

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