Hannah Wilke

Hannah Wilke is a performance artist who looks at her own image as a starting point for her work. As a result she has become a big influence in creating my own performance.

Wilke was highly influenced by photography using it to document her performances and her ideas and as a result established herself as the artist and the subject of her work. This links to my performance of PLAIN JANE that is documented below. I too used photography in order to document my work and help others relate to it. 

Wilke's photography work makes her look very vulnerable and maybe I could work on the vulnerability more in my photos. 

One of Wilke's performances was called 'Hello Boys' which she performed in 1975. This was a 12 minute production where she was seen naked behind a large glass fish tank performing a repertoire of studied erotic gestures along side rock music. She is described as both subject and object, questioning the idea of sexual power and powerlessness. Wilke explores female sexuality and the male gaze. (Both of these which I have explored below)

Wilke used her body as a means of asserting a specifically female iconography. Her work was explored through; posturing, posing and gesture.

'Through the large glass' is one of Wilke's most successful performances. In this piece she performed a deadpan striptease behind Duchamp's The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. (This song seems to be the start of a musical and seems is three men talking about a 'blushing bride'. The music is very upbeat and in the video we see the bride slowly taking off her wedding dress in different layers with her underskirt etc. At the end of the song we learn that she is in fact posing for a magazine) In Wilke's performance she dresses as a 1970's fashion icon and does some poses, then she strips. She uses her own image and sexuality to confront the erotic representation of women in art history and popular culture. 

This performance is extremely interesting to me because she confronts the erotic representation of women, and this is what I want to do. She also uses music in her performance linking with my interest of musical theatre. 

What seems to stand out most prominently to me is that she uses a piece of music and does something over the top of it that contradicts the song. This helps get the message across. She picks an idea and turns it on its head and this is what I want to do.