Martha Wilson
Encyclopedia
Martha Wilson is a Philadelphia feminist performance artist. She is the founding director of Franklin Furnace
. Over the past four decades she has developed and "created innovative photographic and video works that explore her female subjectivity through role-playing, costume transformation, and 'invasions' of other peoples personas". In the early 1970's while studying in Halifax in Nova Scotia
, she began to make videos and photo/text performances. When she moved to New York City
in 1974 she continued to develop and explore her photo/text and video performances. Due to this and her other works during her career she gained attention around America for her provocative characters, costumes, works and performances. During 1976 she founded and became director of the Franklin Furnace Archive, which is an artist-run space that focuses on the exploration, advertisement and promotion of artists books, installation art, video and performance art. By promoting these certain areas of work, due to their content they challenge the established normality of performance, art work and books. Other aspects that are addressed through the promotion of the archive are the roles artists play within the visual arts organisations, and the expectations around what is acceptable in the art mediums.
, a Quaker prep school in her hometown of Newtown
, Pennsylvania
, Wilson graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Wilmington College
, a Quaker college in Ohio
, in 1969. She then attended graduate school at Dalhousie University
in 1971 in Halifax, Nova Scotia
, Canada
before starting her work teaching at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax—then a hotbed of conceptual art. Wilson felt excluded from NSCAD’s conceptual art community, which was reluctant to take her seriously as a woman and as an artist with no previous credentials. Like most of the art that was being made, taught, and encouraged at NSCAD, Wilson first worked in language-based art. However, she soon focused on performance art—using her own body as her medium. This choice further distanced her from her conceptual artist peers, who denigrated performance work on principle, upholding “the Cartesian subservience of the body to the mind.”
Martha created photographic self-portraits called “A Portfolio of Models,” where Wilson posed as many different gender types including: Goddess, Housewife, Lesbian and Professional. By working with role-playing and masquerade,“the process of self-objectification was paradoxically experienced as positive, for it cleared a space which could be filled by her own self-determined visibility and agentic subjectivity.” Wilson used make-up to create her transformation, when producing her made-up face for her performance where she herself became a space for transcending gender norms and showing what people classify and expect from different female gender types. In Wilson’s own words, “absence of self is the free space in which expression plays. Thus the ‘obstacle,’ the painted surface, is ironically the means of expression.” In Wilson's early career, her work was mostly autobiographical being shown through her photography, performance and video. However, in recent years it has become much more less female subjectivity through her work in role-playing, transformations into different types of woman through costumes and the use of other people's personas. In 1976 she became a member of Disband
who were an all female performance group/artists that developed feminist songs. Through this work with Disband she created and developed the character of Alexander M. Plague, Jr. This character along with many others both fictional and real were used over her career including one of her real characters Barbara Bush
.
, where she changed her loft in her own house into an artist-run performance and exhibit space, founding Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. in 1976. Between 1976 and 1996 Franklin Furnace held many different exhibitions in its storefront space on Franklin street in Tribica situated in Lower Manhattan
. Here in this space the Archive presented historical and contemporary exhibitions of artists books along with with some installation pieces/art to the public domain. In the 21st century Franklin Furnace has reinvented itself as a "virtual institution", where its main aim is to fund artists, focus on arts education and the online publishing of works that are not usually in the public's eye.
Since its creation and founding, Franklin Furnace has provided the local, national and international community of activist artists who have explored and presented critical areas of subject controversy such as: war, poverty, disease, racism, sexism, and homophobia, in a domain where other interested artists can view the work of like minded individuals. During the time of the Culture Wars |Culture Wars of the 1980s and 90s
, Franklin Furnace
came to be identified with artists’ of the developing genres it dealt with, and their rights to freedom of expression as a result of its exhibition and continued support for the four artists that came to be known as the “NEA 4,” artists whose grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
were revoked because of the subject matter of performances and art they produced. Franklin Furnace
“went virtual” on its 20th anniversary in 1974, providing artists across the world with a digital platform, where they had a freedom of expression, something unique for artists raising awareness of controversial subjects. Franklin Furnace's presentation of a temporary installation piece and what was known as performance art
. The people that were responsible for publishing the artists' books were the same ones who considered the artist's books to be a visual art medium, two of these people were Jenny Holzer
and Barbara Kruger
. Martine Aballea, who had a book in Franklin Furnace's collection was asked to read from her book and invited to the storefront in June 1976. When Martine turned up to her reading, she came wearing a full costume, accompanied with her own lamp and stool, here the performance art program was first seen in a more public theatre space. Elements of text, image and time were included in a very simple 1977 performance by Robert Wilson
of the word "there", which throughout the performance was repeated 144 times, along with a chair on stage. Franklin Furnace's niche of performance art became the bottom of the food chain, premiering {through their freedom of expression} artists in New York
: Ida Applebroog, Eric Bogosian, David Cale, Willie Cole, Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Ann Hamilton, Theodora Skipitares, Michael Smith, Annie Sprinkle, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Paul Zaloom, and hundreds of others.
A direct quote from Franklin Furnace describing their mission statement: "Franklin Furnace's mission 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. Franklin Furnace is dedicated to serving artists by providing both physical and virtual venues for the presentation of time-based visual art, including but not limited to artists' books and periodicals, installation art
, performance art, "variable media art"; and to undertake other activities related to these purposes. Franklin Furnace is committed to serving emerging artists; to assuming an aggressive pedagogical stance with regard to the value of avant-garde art to life; and to fostering artists' zeal to broadcast ideas."
Soon after, Printed Matter, Inc. came into being the publishing and distributing company for the artists' books. Franklin Furnace taking the not-for-profit activities of collecting, cataloging, preserving, exhibiting and related activities like artists' readings. Printed Matter published and sold artists' books as a for-profit corporation.
an all female vocal performing artists group were based in New York City
from 1978-1982 and were formed by Martha Wilson, IIona Granet, Donna Hennes, Ingrid Sischy and Dianne Torr. The band didn't see themselves are musicians, but instead they were a group of artists who performed using spoken word and noise, creating songs such as: "Every Girl", "Hey Baby", and "Fashions". The bands sound type was that of a capella, performing mostly at the store front space at Franklin Furnace
. In 2008 the group reunited and performed at the P.S.1 contemporary arts centre, where they performed as part of 'WACK! Art and feminist revolution' which was an exhibition put together by The Museum of Contemporary Art
, Los Angeles
. The group became increasing popular with feminist woman, especially those of the art audience, who were like minded and understood the lyrics.
in 1983. In 1988 the gallery moved to Soho
and in 2002 moved to Chelsea
. P•P•O•W maintains a diverse roster of national and international artists. Since its inception, the gallery has remained true to its early vision, showing contemporary work in all media. There is a commitment to representational painting and sculpture and artists who create work with social and political content. Martha Wilson has worked closely with this gallery showing her works/events and exhibitions here since joining in may 2011.
The works which are exhibited in the gallery are embedded with the ideas Martha has being concerned about for four decades. Wilson's new work 'I have become my own worst fear' which is available at the gallery, consist largely of photo/text image which will be shown with a videotape made by the artist in 1974. The works on view consist of nine new photo/text works created in 2008 along with two early works in her career, Alchemy, from 1973 and My Authentic Self from 1974.
and elsewhere. In 1973, her “Breast Forms Permutated” was included in the “c. 7,500” exhibit of conceptual art
made by women at the California Institute of the Arts
in Valencia, California
. In April of that year, she also performed “Selfportrait” at Project Inc. in Cambridge
, Massachusetts
. More recently, she was part of the “Gloria: Another Look at Feminist Art in the 1970s” exhibit at White Columns
in New York City
in 2002 and DISBAND was included in the “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution” exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Los Angeles
in 2007.
Martha Wilson’s signature performance work is political satire, impersonating First Ladies Nancy Reagan
, Barbara Bush
and Second Lady Tipper Gore
. In 2008 Martha Wilson had her first solo exhibit in New York, “Photo/Text Works, 1971-1974” at the Mitchell Algus Gallery in Chelsea
, New York City
. In a New York Times review of the show, Holland Cotter asserted that Martha Wilson is one of “the half-dozen most important people for art in downtown Manhattan
in the 1970s.”
we have towards that type of person.
Wilson created photographic and video works that explored her female subjectivity through the extensive use of role playing, costume transformations and invasions of male and other female personas.
This exhibition highlights the stages of Wilson’s creative contributions (with the use of Franklin Furnace
as all were archived there) within the context of early feminist and socially engaged studio practice as well as her dissemination of the work of like-minded individuals through the endorsement of Franklin Furnace
. Central to the exhibition is Wilson’s presence as an agent of transformative change, initially in her artwork and then her facilitation of cultural change through her Directorial presence at Franklin Furnace. Wilson’s selection of 30 projects from 30 years of programming at Franklin Furnace
also becomes a self-portrait of sorts as she highlights works that are historically significant for pushing boundaries within exhibition and display culture as well as society at large. Exhibition traveling through 2013 under the auspices of Independent Curators International.
1973
1974
1975
1976
1980
1985
1992
1994
2002-
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
, The Goddess
, The working girl, The Professional, The Earth mother and The Lesbian, all of the above are examples of Wilson's. This series of images are based upon ones stereotypical view of the subject matter.
There are many works of Martha Wilson consisting of both image, body and video show casing characters she has created to connect with many other realities, find below a list of her work.
, The School of Visual Arts, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and elsewhere. In 1997 Wilson served as a Guest Editor at Art Journal, for which she wrote an article on the origin of performance art. Between 2003 and 2006, she served as Guest Editor of Leonardo magazine, for which she wrote an article on live art
on the internet. Wilson has received numerous grants for her performance art
, such as two National Endowment for the Arts
Fellowships and a New York Foundation for the Arts
Fellowship. She has also received praise for her support of freedom of expression, including an Obie Award
for commitment to artists’ freedom of expression.
As Franklin Furnace Archive’s Founding Director, Martha Wilson is an important proponent of contemporary variable media. Franklin Furnace
was once the largest collection of artist books in the United States
and remains an important historical establishment for the still largely ignored artist book medium. Franklin Furnace Archive continues to support the contemporary avant-garde
through funds awarded to under-represented artists creating contemporary work. Though the non-profit organization and its archive may be Martha Wilson’s most prominent contribution to the arts in New York
, her early artwork holds an important place in the history of feminist, performance, and conceptual art
.
1993
1992
1991
1983
1978
http://www.marthawilson.com/
Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, USA. This locale produced more species of minerals and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location...
. Over the past four decades she has developed and "created innovative photographic and video works that explore her female subjectivity through role-playing, costume transformation, and 'invasions' of other peoples personas". In the early 1970's while studying in Halifax in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, she began to make videos and photo/text performances. When she moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1974 she continued to develop and explore her photo/text and video performances. Due to this and her other works during her career she gained attention around America for her provocative characters, costumes, works and performances. During 1976 she founded and became director of the Franklin Furnace Archive, which is an artist-run space that focuses on the exploration, advertisement and promotion of artists books, installation art, video and performance art. By promoting these certain areas of work, due to their content they challenge the established normality of performance, art work and books. Other aspects that are addressed through the promotion of the archive are the roles artists play within the visual arts organisations, and the expectations around what is acceptable in the art mediums.
Education and Career
After attending George SchoolGeorge School
George School is a private Quaker boarding and day high school located on a rural campus near Newtown, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded at its present site in 1893, and has grown from a single building to over 20 academic, athletic, and residential buildings...
, a Quaker prep school in her hometown of Newtown
Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Newtown is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,248 at the 2010 census. It is located just west of the Trenton, New Jersey metropolitan area, and is part of the larger Philadelphia metropolitan area. It is entirely surrounded by Newtown Township, from which...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, Wilson graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Wilmington College
Wilmington College
Wilmington College is a private career-oriented liberal arts institution established by Quakers in 1870 in Wilmington, Ohio, United States. The college is accredited by the North Central Association, .-About Wilmington College:...
, a Quaker college in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, in 1969. She then attended graduate school at Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
in 1971 in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
before starting her work teaching at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax—then a hotbed of conceptual art. Wilson felt excluded from NSCAD’s conceptual art community, which was reluctant to take her seriously as a woman and as an artist with no previous credentials. Like most of the art that was being made, taught, and encouraged at NSCAD, Wilson first worked in language-based art. However, she soon focused on performance art—using her own body as her medium. This choice further distanced her from her conceptual artist peers, who denigrated performance work on principle, upholding “the Cartesian subservience of the body to the mind.”
Martha created photographic self-portraits called “A Portfolio of Models,” where Wilson posed as many different gender types including: Goddess, Housewife, Lesbian and Professional. By working with role-playing and masquerade,“the process of self-objectification was paradoxically experienced as positive, for it cleared a space which could be filled by her own self-determined visibility and agentic subjectivity.” Wilson used make-up to create her transformation, when producing her made-up face for her performance where she herself became a space for transcending gender norms and showing what people classify and expect from different female gender types. In Wilson’s own words, “absence of self is the free space in which expression plays. Thus the ‘obstacle,’ the painted surface, is ironically the means of expression.” In Wilson's early career, her work was mostly autobiographical being shown through her photography, performance and video. However, in recent years it has become much more less female subjectivity through her work in role-playing, transformations into different types of woman through costumes and the use of other people's personas. In 1976 she became a member of Disband
Disband
Disband was an all girl band in New York City from 1978-1982. The members were artists rather than musicians. The band's sound was a type of a cappella No Wave. Disband performed mostly at art venues like Franklin Furnace, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Hallwalls...
who were an all female performance group/artists that developed feminist songs. Through this work with Disband she created and developed the character of Alexander M. Plague, Jr. This character along with many others both fictional and real were used over her career including one of her real characters Barbara Bush
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush is the wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of the 43rd President George W. Bush and of the 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush...
.
Franklin Furnace
In 1974, Wilson moved to New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where she changed her loft in her own house into an artist-run performance and exhibit space, founding Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. in 1976. Between 1976 and 1996 Franklin Furnace held many different exhibitions in its storefront space on Franklin street in Tribica situated in Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...
. Here in this space the Archive presented historical and contemporary exhibitions of artists books along with with some installation pieces/art to the public domain. In the 21st century Franklin Furnace has reinvented itself as a "virtual institution", where its main aim is to fund artists, focus on arts education and the online publishing of works that are not usually in the public's eye.
Since its creation and founding, Franklin Furnace has provided the local, national and international community of activist artists who have explored and presented critical areas of subject controversy such as: war, poverty, disease, racism, sexism, and homophobia, in a domain where other interested artists can view the work of like minded individuals. During the time of the Culture Wars |Culture Wars of the 1980s and 90s
90s
-Significant people:* Titus Flavius Domitianus, Roman Emperor * Nerva, Roman Emperor...
, Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, USA. This locale produced more species of minerals and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location...
came to be identified with artists’ of the developing genres it dealt with, and their rights to freedom of expression as a result of its exhibition and continued support for the four artists that came to be known as the “NEA 4,” artists whose grants from the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
were revoked because of the subject matter of performances and art they produced. Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, USA. This locale produced more species of minerals and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location...
“went virtual” on its 20th anniversary in 1974, providing artists across the world with a digital platform, where they had a freedom of expression, something unique for artists raising awareness of controversial subjects. Franklin Furnace's presentation of a temporary installation piece and what was known as performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
. The people that were responsible for publishing the artists' books were the same ones who considered the artist's books to be a visual art medium, two of these people were Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer
Jenny Holzer is an American conceptual artist. Holzer lives and works in Hoosick Falls, New York.-Education:...
and Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger
Barbara Kruger is an American conceptual artist. Much of her work consists of black-and-white photographs overlaid with declarative captions—in white-on-red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed...
. Martine Aballea, who had a book in Franklin Furnace's collection was asked to read from her book and invited to the storefront in June 1976. When Martine turned up to her reading, she came wearing a full costume, accompanied with her own lamp and stool, here the performance art program was first seen in a more public theatre space. Elements of text, image and time were included in a very simple 1977 performance by Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson
Robert Wilson may refer to:In politics:* Rob Wilson , British politician and entrepreneur, MP for Reading East* Robert J. Wilson, candidate in the 1953 Manitoba provincial election* Robert John Wilson, Member of Parliament for Jarrow...
of the word "there", which throughout the performance was repeated 144 times, along with a chair on stage. Franklin Furnace's niche of performance art became the bottom of the food chain, premiering {through their freedom of expression} artists in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
: Ida Applebroog, Eric Bogosian, David Cale, Willie Cole, Guillermo Gomez-Peña, Ann Hamilton, Theodora Skipitares, Michael Smith, Annie Sprinkle, Krzysztof Wodiczko, Paul Zaloom, and hundreds of others.
A direct quote from Franklin Furnace describing their mission statement: "Franklin Furnace's mission is to present, preserve, interpret proselytize and advocate on behalf of avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
art, especially forms that may be vulnerable due to institutional neglect, their ephemeral nature, or politically unpopular content. Franklin Furnace is dedicated to serving artists by providing both physical and virtual venues for the presentation of time-based visual art, including but not limited to artists' books and periodicals, installation art
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
, performance art, "variable media art"; and to undertake other activities related to these purposes. Franklin Furnace is committed to serving emerging artists; to assuming an aggressive pedagogical stance with regard to the value of avant-garde art to life; and to fostering artists' zeal to broadcast ideas."
Soon after, Printed Matter, Inc. came into being the publishing and distributing company for the artists' books. Franklin Furnace taking the not-for-profit activities of collecting, cataloging, preserving, exhibiting and related activities like artists' readings. Printed Matter published and sold artists' books as a for-profit corporation.
Disband
DisbandDisband
Disband was an all girl band in New York City from 1978-1982. The members were artists rather than musicians. The band's sound was a type of a cappella No Wave. Disband performed mostly at art venues like Franklin Furnace, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and Hallwalls...
an all female vocal performing artists group were based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
from 1978-1982 and were formed by Martha Wilson, IIona Granet, Donna Hennes, Ingrid Sischy and Dianne Torr. The band didn't see themselves are musicians, but instead they were a group of artists who performed using spoken word and noise, creating songs such as: "Every Girl", "Hey Baby", and "Fashions". The bands sound type was that of a capella, performing mostly at the store front space at Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, USA. This locale produced more species of minerals and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location...
. In 2008 the group reunited and performed at the P.S.1 contemporary arts centre, where they performed as part of 'WACK! Art and feminist revolution' which was an exhibition put together by The Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art
There are several museums named the Museum of Contemporary Art.They include:-Americas:*Museum of Contemporary Art of Rosario, Argentina*Museum of Contemporary Art of the University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil...
, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. The group became increasing popular with feminist woman, especially those of the art audience, who were like minded and understood the lyrics.
P.P.O.W.
P•P•O•W was founded by Wendy Olsoff and Penny Pilkington in the first wave of the East-Village Art Scene in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1983. In 1988 the gallery moved to Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
and in 2002 moved to Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
. P•P•O•W maintains a diverse roster of national and international artists. Since its inception, the gallery has remained true to its early vision, showing contemporary work in all media. There is a commitment to representational painting and sculpture and artists who create work with social and political content. Martha Wilson has worked closely with this gallery showing her works/events and exhibitions here since joining in may 2011.
The works which are exhibited in the gallery are embedded with the ideas Martha has being concerned about for four decades. Wilson's new work 'I have become my own worst fear' which is available at the gallery, consist largely of photo/text image which will be shown with a videotape made by the artist in 1974. The works on view consist of nine new photo/text works created in 2008 along with two early works in her career, Alchemy, from 1973 and My Authentic Self from 1974.
Performance and Exhibition
Since the early 1970s, Wilson has performed and exhibited her work at various galleries and museums in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and elsewhere. In 1973, her “Breast Forms Permutated” was included in the “c. 7,500” exhibit of conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
made by women at the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
in Valencia, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. In April of that year, she also performed “Selfportrait” at Project Inc. in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. More recently, she was part of the “Gloria: Another Look at Feminist Art in the 1970s” exhibit at White Columns
White Columns
White Columns is New York City’s oldest alternative non-profit space and one of its most prestigious. White Columns is known as a show case for up and coming artists....
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 2002 and DISBAND was included in the “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution” exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is a contemporary art museum with three locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near Walt Disney Concert Hall...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 2007.
Martha Wilson’s signature performance work is political satire, impersonating First Ladies Nancy Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
, Barbara Bush
Barbara Bush
Barbara Pierce Bush is the wife of the 41st President of the United States George H. W. Bush, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993. She is the mother of the 43rd President George W. Bush and of the 43rd Governor of Florida Jeb Bush...
and Second Lady Tipper Gore
Tipper Gore
Mary Elizabeth "Tipper" Gore , née Aitcheson, is an author, photographer, former second lady of the United States, and the estranged wife of Al Gore...
. In 2008 Martha Wilson had her first solo exhibit in New York, “Photo/Text Works, 1971-1974” at the Mitchell Algus Gallery in Chelsea
Chelsea, Manhattan
Chelsea is a neighborhood on the West Side of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The district's boundaries are roughly 14th Street to the south, 30th Street to the north, the western boundary of the Ladies' Mile Historic District – which lies between the Avenue of the Americas and...
, New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In a New York Times review of the show, Holland Cotter asserted that Martha Wilson is one of “the half-dozen most important people for art in downtown Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in the 1970s.”
Staging the Self
In March till May 2009 an exhibition by Martha Wilson and Peter Dykhuis for The Dalhousie Art Gallery provided a deeper meaning and understanding of the work that she has created through a number of still images and well constructed characters that surround the interpretations that one may have to a certain type of person, or the personasPersonas
In marketing and user-centered design, personas are fictional characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/or behavior set that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way. Personas are a tool or method of market segmentation...
we have towards that type of person.
Wilson created photographic and video works that explored her female subjectivity through the extensive use of role playing, costume transformations and invasions of male and other female personas.
This exhibition highlights the stages of Wilson’s creative contributions (with the use of Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, USA. This locale produced more species of minerals and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location...
as all were archived there) within the context of early feminist and socially engaged studio practice as well as her dissemination of the work of like-minded individuals through the endorsement of Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, USA. This locale produced more species of minerals and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location...
. Central to the exhibition is Wilson’s presence as an agent of transformative change, initially in her artwork and then her facilitation of cultural change through her Directorial presence at Franklin Furnace. Wilson’s selection of 30 projects from 30 years of programming at Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, USA. This locale produced more species of minerals and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location...
also becomes a self-portrait of sorts as she highlights works that are historically significant for pushing boundaries within exhibition and display culture as well as society at large. Exhibition traveling through 2013 under the auspices of Independent Curators International.
Selected Performances & Exhibitions
1972- Captivating a man
1973
- Posturing: Drag
- Posturing: Age transformations
- Posturing: Male impersonator, Butch
- Breast forms permutated
- Transformance: Claudia
1974
- I make up the image of my perfection/ I make up the image of my deformity
- A portfolio of Models: The Goddess, The Housewife, The Working girl, The Professional, The Earth Mother, The Lesbian
1975
- De-Formation
1976
- Franklin Furnace founded
- Queen
1980
- Disband
1985
- Just Say No to Arms Control
1992
- Barbara Bush on Abuse
1994
- Tipper Gore: Advice for the 90's
2002-
- Gloria: Another look at Feminist Art in the 1970s
- Personal & Political
2005
- How American Women Artists invented Post-Modernism
2006
- The Downtown Show
2007
- WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution
2008
- Martha Wilson: Photo/text works, 1971-74
- Looking back: The White Columns Annual
- re.act.feminism
2009
- 40 Years 40 Projects
- Martha Wilson: Staging the Self
2010
- The Man I Wish I Was
- Donna: Avangurdia Feminista Negli Anni '70
2011
- Solo exhibitions
Videoed Performances
Wilson's works are mainly involved with image, not the image we gain from the piece she has created but instead the image that is created surrounding a topic/subject. Example of this would be her work from 1974, 'a portfolio of models', in which she in turn creates a series of 'models' through the understanding that one's self has itself the topic in question. The housewifeHousewife
Housewife is a term used to describe a married woman with household responsibilities who is not employed outside the home. Merriam Webster describes a housewife as a married woman who is in charge of her household...
, The Goddess
Goddess
A goddess is a female deity. In some cultures goddesses are associated with Earth, motherhood, love, and the household. In other cultures, goddesses also rule over war, death, and destruction as well as healing....
, The working girl, The Professional, The Earth mother and The Lesbian, all of the above are examples of Wilson's. This series of images are based upon ones stereotypical view of the subject matter.
There are many works of Martha Wilson consisting of both image, body and video show casing characters she has created to connect with many other realities, find below a list of her work.
- http://www.marthawilson.com/videos.php
- Premiere: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1972
- Routine performance: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1972
- Art sucks: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1972
- Appearance as value: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1972
- Cauterisation: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1974
- Deformation: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1974
- Martha Wilson as Nancy Reagan: For Oracle, performance series at Exit Art, New York, 1985
- Martha Wilson as Nancy Reagan "Nancy Reagan beats Cancer": Sideshows by the Seashore, Coney Island, July 13th, 1986
- Martha Wilson as Nancy Reagan "Nancy Reagan director": Atomic Gospel Hour, New York City, April 12th, 1987
- Martha Wilson as Barbara Bush: Upstream Arts, Staten Island C.T.V, March 11th, 1991
- Martha Wilson as Tipper Gore "Beauty and the Beast: The Weight Thing": Tacoma, WA, April 16, 1994
- Martha Wilson as Tipper Gore "Body Politic: Mental Health": Cooper Union, N.Y.C, February 15th, 1994
- Martha Wilson as Barbara Bush "Separated at Birth" : New York, NY 2003
Events
- Martha Wilson: Staging the Self (Transformations, Invasions and Pushing Boundaries)September 17, 2011 at the Book Launch & Artist Talk Brooklyn MuseumBrooklyn MuseumThe Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
.
- Martha Wilson New York Studio Event on March 30, 2011.
- Martha Wilson offers her perspective on feminist research on February 19, 2011 at the Art Gallery Concordia University.
- Performance and Identity, January 20, 2011 at the Leonard & Bina Ellen at the Art Gallery Concordia University.
- Tour of the exhibition with artist Martha Wilson and curator Peter DykhuisJanuary 19, 2011 at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery Concordia University.
Academic work
Wilson has lectured widely on the book as an art form, performance art, and "variable media art," at New York UniversityNew York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, The School of Visual Arts, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and elsewhere. In 1997 Wilson served as a Guest Editor at Art Journal, for which she wrote an article on the origin of performance art. Between 2003 and 2006, she served as Guest Editor of Leonardo magazine, for which she wrote an article on live art
Live Art
Live Art is the fifth album released by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and their first non-studio album. It was recorded live at various concerts between 1992 and 1996 and features ten guest musicians....
on the internet. Wilson has received numerous grants for her performance art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, such as two National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellowships and a New York Foundation for the Arts
New York Foundation for the Arts
The New York Foundation for the Arts was created in conjunction the in 1971. The organization gives grants to individual artists and writers and developing arts organizations with a mission to '.'-NYFA's Programs:...
Fellowship. She has also received praise for her support of freedom of expression, including an Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for commitment to artists’ freedom of expression.
As Franklin Furnace Archive’s Founding Director, Martha Wilson is an important proponent of contemporary variable media. Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace
Franklin Furnace, also known as the Franklin Mine, is a famous mineral location for rare zinc, iron, manganese minerals in old mines in Franklin, New Jersey, USA. This locale produced more species of minerals and more different fluorescent minerals than any other location...
was once the largest collection of artist books in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and remains an important historical establishment for the still largely ignored artist book medium. Franklin Furnace Archive continues to support the contemporary avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
through funds awarded to under-represented artists creating contemporary work. Though the non-profit organization and its archive may be Martha Wilson’s most prominent contribution to the arts in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, her early artwork holds an important place in the history of feminist, performance, and conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
.
Books
- Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering Feminism, Performance, Alternative Spaces, by Kate Fowle, Martha Wilson and Professor Moira Roth. 2011. An anthology of writings from 18th century in literature to current texts, was published by Independent Curators International. The Sourcebook is a collection of primary research material consisting of rare archival documents and excerpts of landmark publications that influenced Wilson, such as Simone de Beauvoir’sSimone de BeauvoirSimone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
The Second Sex, Erving GoffmanErving GoffmanErving Goffman was a Canadian-born sociologist and writer.The 73rd president of American Sociological Association, Goffman's greatest contribution to social theory is his study of symbolic interaction in the form of dramaturgical perspective that began with his 1959 book The Presentation of Self...
’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Susan SontagSusan SontagSusan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...
’s On Photography.
- Franklin FurnaceFranklin Furnace ArchiveFranklin Furnace Archive, Inc. is an arts organization based in Brooklyn, New York that serves to preserve and encourage the production of avant-garde art, particularly forms that are under-represented by arts institutions due to their ephemeral nature or politically unpopular...
and the Spirit of the Avant Garde: A History of the Future. By Toni Sant. 2011
- Martha Wilson: Staging the self. By Peter Dykhuis and Jayne Wark. 2011
Articles
- "Old," "Crazy" and "Hysterical." Is That All There Is? Oct 5, 2011, by G. Roger DensonG. Roger DensonG. Roger Denson is an American art critic, theoretician, novelist, and curator. A regular contributor to Huffington Post, his writings have also appeared in such international publications as Art in America, Parkett, Artscribe International, Flash Art, Bijutsu Techo, Kunstlerhaus Bethanien,...
- Martha Wilson: The Liminal Trickster Oct 5, 2011, by Lauren Bakst
- Artist Martha Wilson at P.P.O.W., New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
: Aging gracefully, with political consciousness, "beauty" and sass, September 10, 2011, by Edward M. Gómez
- Martha Wilson speaks on Free Zones, March 21, 2011, by Felicity Tayler
- Interview with Martha Wilson, co-Founder of Franklin Furnace Archive, November 8, 2010, by Claudine Ise
- Kaitlin Till-Landry interviews Martha Wilson, March 22, 2010
- "Going Virtual," by Martha Wilson
- "The Personal Becomes Political in Time," by Martha Wilson
- "Martha Wilson: Not Taking It at Face Value," by Jayne Wark
Grants and Awards
2001- New York Foundation for the ArtsNew York Foundation for the ArtsThe New York Foundation for the Arts was created in conjunction the in 1971. The organization gives grants to individual artists and writers and developing arts organizations with a mission to '.'-NYFA's Programs:...
Fellowship, Performance Art.
1993
- Citation by Robert S. Clark, Nathan CummingsNathan CummingsNathan Cummings was the founder of Consolidated Foods, which later became known by one of its product lines, Sara Lee Corporation.-Early life:...
, Joyce Mertz-Gilmore, Rockefeller and Andy WarholAndy WarholAndrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
Foundations for commitment to the principle of freedom of expression.
1992
- Bessie Award for commitment to artists' freedom of expression.
- Obie AwardObie AwardThe Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for commitment to artists' freedom of expression.
1991
- Skowhegan School Governor's Award for Service to the Arts.
1983
- National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellowship, Performance Art.
1978
- National Endowment for the ArtsNational Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Fellowship, Performance Art.
Further reading
- Edgar, Anne. "A Conversation with Franklin Furnace." Afterimage 13, no. 1-2 (Summer, 1985): 28-30.
- Wilson, Martha. "The Personal Becomes Political in Time." N.Paradoxa no. 5 (2000): 83-90.
- What Franklin Furnace Learned from Presenting and Producing Live Art on the Internet, from 1996 to Now. Leonardo 38, no. 3 (2005): 193-200
- Wark, Jayne, "Martha Wilson: Not Taking It at Face Value," Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture and Media Studies. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.
- Reckitt, Helena and Peggy PhelanPeggy PhelanPeggy Phelan is an American feminist scholar, one of the founders of Performance Studies International and was chair of New York University's Department of Performance Studies from 1993 to 1996. She is also the author of Unmarked , Mourning Sex and Art and Feminism -External links:*...
. Art and Feminism: Themes and Movements. London: Phaidon Press.
External Links
http://franklinfurnace.org/index.phphttp://www.marthawilson.com/