Topic Strings

            The purpose of this paragraph is to define and give history on installation and performance art, in order to later examine how they are used in Womanhouse.

   

               The Womanhouse protest was not only influenced by feminist politics of the sixties and seventies but also the popular art styles of installation and performance art. Similar to the birth of 1970’s feminism 1970’s art was influenced by turmoil of the 1960’s, and as Rebecca Lowery examines performance art became the dominant art expression in Los Angeles at this time “women artists in particular developed mutually implicative performance practices that engaged a yet undefined horizon of experience: art as a shared occasion of social and political dynamism” (Lowery, 121). As Lowery demonstrates performance art allowed artists to better connect to their social and political identities, which was also a major tenant of women’s liberation feminism (121). Installation art also arose in the sixties and seventies and was often used by feminists due to its objection of having a correct way to interpret art (Bishop). Installation art emerges out of poststructuralism and is intended to oppose Renaissance viewing of art “it states that the correct way in which to view our condition as human subjects is fragmented, multiple and decentred-… by an interdependent and differential relationship to the world, or by pre-existing social structures”(Bishop, 13). This definition of poststructuralism translates into installation art by putting the subject in a position where they are forced to look at the work from all angles, and are not fixed or have a privileged view of art, but are thrown into the middle. This concept can arguably be applied to performance art as well, where the viewer is also being forced to see the art in three-dimensional space.

Characters:

Womanhouse Protest

Performance Art

Installation art

Poststructuralism

Installation and performance art are popular art styles in the sixties and seventies that influenced the Womanhouse protest. Rebecca Lowery examines how performance art became the dominant art expression in Los Angeles at this time “women artists in particular developed mutually implicative performance practices that engaged a yet undefined horizon of experience: art as a shared occasion of social and political dynamism” (Lowery, 121). As Lowery demonstrates performance art allowed artists to better connect to their social and political identities, which was also a major tenant of women’s liberation feminism (121). Installation art also arose in the sixties and seventies and was often used by feminists due to its objection of having a correct way to interpret art (Bishop). In Installation Art: A Critical History Claire Bishop defines the movement installation art emerges out of, poststructuralism “[poststructuralism] states that the correct way in which to view our condition as human subjects is fragmented, multiple and decentred-… by an interdependent and differential relationship to the world, or by pre-existing social structures”(Bishop, 13). Poststructuralism translates into installation art by putting the subject in a position where they are forced to look at the work from all angles, and are not fixed or have a privileged view of art, but are thrown into the middle. This concept can arguably be applied to performance art as well, where the viewer is also being forced to see the art in three-dimensional space.

Topic Position	Stress Position
Installation and performance art	art styles in the sixties and seventies that influenced the Womanhouse protest
…performance art	became the dominant art expression in Los Angeles at this time
performance art	allowed artists to better connect to their social and political identities…a major tenant of women’s liberation feminism
Installation art	arose in the sixties and seventies and was often used by feminists due to its objection of having a correct way to interpret art
poststructuralism	states that the correct way in which to view our condition as human subjects is fragmented, multiple and decentred
Poststructuralism translates into installation art	putting the subject in a position where they are forced to look at the work from all angles

Topic Sentence: Artists in the women’s liberation movement of the sixties and seventies connected to their social and political identities through performance art.