Bra Burning & Mask Stabbing

More photos from ICA performance of Impenetrable Power of The Phallic Matron, 20 May 2011.

The bra-burning, peace-offering moment of the performance (following swiftly after the bikini-competition and question round) is a mini-homage to the New York Radical women who carried out the same protest action at The Miss America Pageant in 1968.

The mirror reflection of the goddess of love's visage in Velazquez's Rokeby Venus (1649-51) was painted purposely blurry and vague by the artist who didn't want to pin-down the specifics of the ideal face. Venus is rendered anonymous. I've undone this by literally stabbing Sarah Palin's face onto the surface of the mirror as the culmination of my performance.

Photos: jimbanks.info

Women Art Revolution - the movie

I can't wait to see this movie by Lynn Hersman Leeson - it looks totally awesome!

"Through intimate interviews, art, and rarely seen archival film and video footage, !Women Art Revolution reveals how the Feminist Art Movement fused free speech and politics into an art that radically transformed the art and culture of our times."

There's a short review in The New York Times which mentions the fact that Leeson has also set up an interactive online archive.