Womanhouse

"Womanhouse" (30 January & 28 February, 1972) was a women-only art installation and performance organized by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, co-founders of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) Feminist Art Program. Chicago, Schapiro, their students and artists from the local community participated. Chicago and Schapiro encouraged their students to use consciousness-raising techniques to generate the content of the exhibition. Each woman was given a room or space of her own in a 17-room mansion in Hollywood, California.

Only women were allowed to view the exhibition on its first day, after that the exhibition was all-come, all-see. Chicago observed that on the first day, responses to the artwork were heightened, and on subsequent days responses were muted.

Concept of Womanhouse

Chicago and Schapiro's teaching is based on group operation where twenty-one young women artists were elected to join this exclusively female class. The way of teaching is circular, "more womb-like," describes Schapiro. [Schapiro, Miriam, "The Education of Women as Artists: Project Womanhouse", Art Journal, vol. 31, no.3, Spring, 1972, p. 268-270] The primary concern was to provide a nourishing environment for growth. In the group, laws are based on mutual aesthetic consent to encourage and support artistic needs of the group. There are some unwritten laws regarding the appropriateness of subject matter for art making: dolls, pillows, cosmetics, sanitary napkins, silk stockings, underwear, children's toys, washbasins, toasters, frying pans, refrigerator, door handles, shower caps, quilts, and satin bedspread. The content of the project Womanhouse was to reverse this mythical thinking.

The initial idea to create Womanhouse was Paula Harper's, she helped to conceptualize the project at the beginning. Later, the conception of Womanhouse continued as a topic for discussion in one of the class meetings. During the discussion, students asked what it would be like to work out one of their closest associative memories, the home, which as a culture of women have been identified with for centuries. It has been the place where women struggled to please others. The students wondered what the home would be like if they pleased no one but themselves as women and began the project.

The relationship between biology and social roles formed the foundation of Womanhouse. Most of the rooms replicated areas of the house while at the same time challenged the activity of that room and the meaning of that activity to women's self-image through creative exaggeration.

A 47-minute [http://www.wmm.com/filmCatalog/pages/c324.shtml documentary film] was made in 1974 about the project by Johanna Demetrakas, and is now available on video. Its European distribution is assured by [http://www.lepeuplequimanque.org le peuple qui manque]

Artists

Among the artists and CalArts students that collaborated were:
* Beth Bachenheimer (Shoe Closet)
* Sherry Brody (Lingerie Pillows)
* Judy Chicago (Menstruation Bathroom, Cock and Cunt Play)
* Susan Frazier
* Camille Grey (Lipstick Bathroom)
* Vicky Hodgett (Nurturant Kitchen)
* Kathy Huberland (Bridal Staircase)
* Judy Huddleston
* Janice Johnson
* Karen LeCocq (Leah's Room)
* Janice Lester
* Paula Longendyke
* Ann Mills (Leaf Room)
* Carol Edison Mitchell
* Robin Mitchell
* Sandra Orgel (Linen Closet &Ironing)
* Jan Oxenburg
* Christine Rush
* Marsha Salisbury
* Miriam Schapiro (Doll’s House)
* Robin Schiff
* Mira Schor
* Robin Weltsch (Nurturant Kitchen)
* Wanda Westcoast
* Faith Wilding (Womb Room & Waiting)
* Shawnee Wollenma
* Nancy Youdelman (Leah's Room)

Reference

* Harper, Paula, "The First Feminist Art Program: A View from the 1980s", Signs, vol. 10, no. 4, summer, 1985, p. 762-781.

* Raven, Arlene, "Womanhouse," The Power of Feminist Art, London: Thames and Hudson, 1994, p. 161-172.

* Schapiro, Miriam, "The Education of Women as Artists: Project Womanhouse", Art Journal, vol. 31, no.3, Spring, 1972, p. 268-270.

References

External links

* [http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/eascfa/dinner_party/womens_work.php Womanhouse.]
* [http://www.ic.arizona.edu/ic/mcbride/ws200/womenandgender.html A Brief History of Women, Art and Gender.]
* [http://as-ap.org/sider/resources.cfm WOMANHOUSE: Cradle of Feminist Art.]

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