Carolee Schneemann, From Eye Body,
1963/2005. Photographs by Erró.
Courtesy P.P.O.W, New York and the artist
Prior to Schneemann, the female body in art was mute and functioned almost exclusively as a mirror of masculine desire – Jan Avgikos, Artforum.
A pioneering visual artist, Carolee Schneemann has transformed the dynamics of the body through her photography, installations and performances, integrating it as a formal material and as visual territory. As early as the 1970s, Schneemann's work became part of the canon of feminist art, as some of the first visual images that provided a lexicon of an explicitly feminist avant-garde vocabulary. During her lecture at OCA, Carolee Schneemann will offer a brief introduction to a selection of her restored films (DVD) and recent new DVDs. The artist will provide an historical and creative context to introduce each work as she examines the public and personal shifts in erotic depiction as they mutated from the 1960s to the present.
The film programme will include the self-shot controversial classic Fuses – praised by The Gardian as '... a silent celebration in colour of heterosexual love making'. Body Collage, a visceral 'movement-event' from 1967 that documents Schneemann while she creates a physicalized corporal collage. Schnemann will also screen Interior Scroll – The Cave, in which the artist and seven nude women perform the ritualized actions of Interior Scroll – reading the text as each woman slowly extracts a scroll from her vagina. The scroll embodies the primacy of an extended visual line shaped as both concept and action. The programme will also include Infinity Kisses – The Movie, – which completes the artist's exploration of human and feline sensual communication – and Americana I Ching Apple Pie. The film documents the 1977 presentation of the performance Americana I Ching Apple Pie, a cooking event for the Heresies Magazine performance and jumble sale benefit.
Carolee Schneemann is a multidisciplinary artist who has transformed the very definition of art, with work encompassing painting, film, performance and installation. Her works have been shown internationally, at the LA Museum of Contemporary Art, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, among others. In 2007, a dual exhibit at CEPA Gallery, Buffalo N.Y. & MOCCA Toronto featured recent video installations. Electronic Arts Intermix and Anthology Film Archives New York City collaborated on presentations of newly restored and current film & videos November 2007.
Prior r.s.v.p. is required for this event to marthe@oca.no
The Office for Contemporary Art Norway is a private foundation and was founded by The Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs and The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in fall 2001. The main aim of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway is to develop collaborations in contemporary art between Norway and the international art scene. The Office for Contemporary Art Norway aims to become a key contributor to the discourses of contemporary art.