Moving Image Istanbul

Martha Wilson, Complete Halifax Collection 1972-1974

 

Art Sucks, 1972, 1:23 min. black and white, sound

Premiere, 1972, 1:32 min. black and white, sound

Routine Performance, 1972. 2:09 min. black and white, sound

Psychology of Camera Presence, 1974, 8:50min. black and white, sound

Method Art, 1973, 6:15 min. black and white, sound

Deformation, 1974, 8:00min. black and white, sound

Cauterization, 1974, 6:45min. black and white, sound 

 

Since the early 1970s, Wilson has created conceptually based performances, videos, and photo/text compositions that grapple with constructions and manifestations of feminism, identity, and the way we construct and present ourselves. The Complete Halifax Collection highlights the four seminal years she spent in Halifax, Nova Scotia where Wilson first began to create art that responded to the marginalization of females by the male-dominated art school environment. Frequently taking herself as subject, Wilson creates transgressive, avant-garde works that address political and social issues, teasing out complexity and nuance by infusing her work with playful gestures and humorous juxtapositions.

Wilson's early work is now considered prescient. In addition to being regarded by many as prefiguring some of the ideas proposed in the 1980s by philosopher Judith Butler about gender performativity, many of her photo-text pieces point to territory later mined by Cindy Sherman, among many other contemporary artists. 

As Founding Director of Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc., Wilson was described by The New York Times critic Holland Cotter in 2008 as one of “the half-dozen most important people for art in downtown Manhattan in the 1970s.” Franklin Furnace is an artist-run space that champions the exploration, promotion and preservation of artists’ books, installation art, video, online and performance art. She was a founding member in 1978 of DISBAND (including Ilona Granet, Donna Henes, Ingrid Sischy and Diane Torr), the all-girl conceptual feminist punk rock band of artists who couldn’t play any instruments, and has since performed in the guises of political figures, including Alexander Haig, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Tipper Gore.  In 2008, she had her first solo exhibition in New York at Mitchell Algus Gallery, Martha Wilson: Photo/Text Works, 1971-74; in 2009, Martha Wilson: Staging the Self began international travel under the auspices of ICI (Independent Curators International); and in 2011, ICI published the Martha Wilson Sourcebook: 40 Years of Reconsidering Performance, Feminism, Alternative Spaces. Martha Wilson joined P.P.O.W Gallery in 2011 and mounted a solo exhibition, I have become my own worst fear, that September. Her upcoming solo exhibition, Mona/Marcel/Marge opens October 22^nd, 2015 at P.P.O.W

 

Moving Image Istanbul

Kuleli Building
Haliç Congress Centre
Sütlüce Mah. Karaagaç Cad. No.19 34445
Beyoglu, Istanbul, Turkey

Hours:

Fri, Sept 4, 2015: VIP Preview (by invitation only)
Sat, Sept 5, 2015: 12:00 – 8:00
Sun, Sept 6, 2015: 12:00 – 6:00