Suzanne Lacy, a feminist artist, discusses the potential for activism and community involvement in the art world.
For
the most of her five-decade career, Los Angeles-based artist Suzanne Lacy has
performed outside the boundaries of the art world and in the public realm. As a
proponent of the feminist consciousness-raising movements of Judy Chicago and
Alan Kaprow beginning in the 1970s, she created a social practice that reshaped
the definition of performance art by focusing her work on extensive, sustained
community projects that addressed issues such as racism, poverty, and violence
against women.
The
Crystal Quilt (1985–87), a project aimed at increasing the visibility of older
women in society, is one of the highlights of Lacy's career that is being
revisited in her current exhibition at the Queens Museum in New York, which
runs until August 14. 430 women gathered for a public discussion on the
experience of ageing on a highly stylized stage designed to resemble the
geometric patterns of a quilt over the course of two years that she and a team
of collaborators hosted for Minnesota-based women over 60. These leadership
workshops and media campaigns culminated in a televised action in a Minneapolis
shopping mall. The piece discussed new media creative
engagement with virality, relational participation, and social choreography in
addition to the feminist issues of societal neglect of elder women.
Lacy
recently spoke with The Art Newspaper about the potential for both art activism
and art in public service, as well as the value of virality in bringing about
social change.
ART
NEWSPAPER: What was the situation of what we now refer to as "social
practice" when you started creating art in the 1970s, and how has that
changed over time?
Sheila
Lacy: It doesn't really matter to me what terminology you use—community art,
community-based art, social art, political art, or the new category of public
art that I invented. The specificity of the audience was one of the advances
that racially or feminist-based art pioneered in the 1970s; at CalArts, people
were often talking about the universal audience, but we were just starting to consider
who would be seeing the piece. Since then, our understanding of
audience, participation, place, topic matter, and engagement tactics has
advanced. Are you mobilising people? Are you educating the public? Are you
raising a fuss? Aligning yourself with organisations These are the ideas that
have developed since I began.
In
contrast to a lot of the ostensibly political art that is displayed in
galleries, what really impresses me about your work is that it is true
activism. What is activism, and can it coexist with the arts?
Change
is impacted through activism. In my opinion, art serves to support and advance
a broader, social, or political notion rather than doing anything profound or
original on its own. But the fundamental problem with trying to be an activist
only in the art world is that, for the most part, people who visit galleries
already share your viewpoints—otherwise, they wouldn't be there. I've attempted
to integrate feminist, anti-racist, and anti-poverty direct service practises
into my conceptual art production.
As
a result, you've collaborated with hundreds of people on dozens of
community-based projects. How have you chosen the people you wish to
collaborate with and then organised your projects with them?
The
establishment of a cultural district in Allensworth, California, a historically
Black city 15 miles from where I was up, is the subject of a class I'm
currently teaching for University of Southern California grads. I dismantle the
spheres of influence and power in each place where I work, which is typically
in communities where I've been invited, in very precise ways. What steps are
being taken by the police in this regard? the colleges? The
public officials? You meet with people and determine where your beliefs are in agreement,
where the conflicts are, and how to forge cross-conflict coalitions. This is a
forgotten art in modern politics—a skill set for organising.
You
were going viral before the term was even coined, thus aesthetic composition is
a key factor in all of your acts, especially in terms of how it might attract
media attention. What role does media coverage have in an activist's work?
Media
is a tool for communication that has the power to alter popular culture. In my
work, I explore how it functions, how it speaks about women, and how those
things may be questioned or changed. The Crystal Quilt was an intentional
repositioning of the media to increase the prominence of older women, who at
the time were the underrepresented voice in American public media. For
older women to return to their communities and advance their voices in the
public domain, we collaborated with a communications volunteer to create press
kits and workshops. The performance would always look fantastic and leave a
lasting visual impression; it would never just be a bunch of people sitting
about in various coloured seats.
You
functioned virtually exclusively in the public domain for many years as opposed
to in museums and galleries. What impact has that had on your interactions with
the art world, and particularly the art market?
I
think of myself as an artist. It may be more beneficial to run for government
to bring about social change, but I decided a long time ago to function as an
artist and to think artistically and visually. In the art world, you can
present artwork visually and engage in complex theorising in ways that are not
possible in everyday life. The museum setting serves as a great archive for the
concepts and methods I've used over the years. Of course, you can
also alter the possibilities of creating art or the nature of the art itself.
The art industry has given me a platform from which to exert my influence and
suggest that it's acceptable for students to use art to affect social change,
making this practice commonplace. But operating in the art market is a tough
business. Hank Willis Thomas, Andrea Bowers, and, in a more abstract sense,
Rodney McMillan and Charles Gaines, are some folks I believe are doing it
successfully. I teach for a living, but I believe having a trust fund is the
greatest way to make it as an artist.