Linda Mary Montano with Tehching Hsieh. Art/Life: One Year Performance 1983–1984 (Rope Piece), 1983-1984 (still); performance documentation.

Feminist Performance Art: The Body as a Site for Political Strategy

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Abstract

The1960s and 1970s saw an unprecedented participation from female artists in the growing practice of performance art. Undoubtedly, this insurgence was heavily linked to the momentum of early feminist activism in North America. The Women’s Liberation movement was one of several radical movements that were simultaneously active during that period. This heightened degree of social unrest gave new role to artists as social and political agitators.

           In this work, I argue that feminist performance art allowed women to place themselves, both literally and figuratively at the very centre of their artwork, thus using the body as a site for political strategy. Additionally, feminist performance art served as an effective method in engaging in both aesthetic and social concerns, while pioneering dialectics of oppression and liberation.


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