In the first year
of the Feminist Art Program in Fresno, California (1970-71), a small group
of us worked collaboratively with “costume” images.
The group consisted of myself; Janice Lester, Dori Atlantis,
Shawnee Wollenman, and whomever we could talk into letting us dress them
up. We had the privacy of an off-campus studio. Judy Chicago was very
encouraging. She taught us to push ourselves beyond what we thought we
could do and exposed us to the professional side of art making. We got
better cameras, used backdrop paper and refined our images. We were investigating
the various roles and visual images of women. The following images are
a sample of what we did.
These
are “clips” from Images of Women, a
super-8 film that I made in 1971.
It was filmed in slow motion and consisted of
images of costumed women and funeral flowers.
W o m a n h o u s e:
Students and faculty of the program at Cal-Arts
worked together and transformed an abandoned
mansion into an environment reflecting the
dreams, ideas and emotions of women. Related
performances were presented during the
exhibition of Womanhouse, January 21 - February 27, 1972.
This collaborative project received
international media attention and been covered in
numerous books as well as a documentary film
that was made by Johanna Demitracas.
Karen LeCocq and I collaborated on Lea’s Room.
We transformed one of the upstairs bedrooms into
an elaborate antique filled haven that was inspired
by the character Lea, an aging courtesan in a novel by Colette. On Friday
and Saturday evenings during the month that Womahouse was open, Karen
sat at the make-up table and applied make-up, layer after layer—acting
out the anguish that women can go through to present a “face” to the world.
The
Fresno Feminist Art Program 1970-1971
Judy Chicago organized the Fresno Feminist Art
Program in the spring of 1970 and began teaching
it that fall. She was employed at that time in the
Art Department of the California State University,
Fresno, whose chairman gave her a free hand in
designing her experiment. Fifteen women students
enrolled in the year long program. They came from
very diverse backgrounds socially and artistically.
Most were entirely new to feminism and serious
art making. What made this program unique were
the following factors:
Click here to continue essay
Veiled
Woman
Model: Shawnee Wollenman
Kewpie
Doll
Model: Cheryl Zurilgen
Whore
Model: Nancy Youdelman
Victorian
Lady
Model: Miriam Schapiro
Victorian
Whore
Model: Karen LeCocq
Lea's
room:
Karen LeCocq at the dressing table during her performance
Lea's
room 2:
View of "fainting couch"
Lea's
room 3:
View of the bed
Lea's
room 4:
Detail of dressing table
