Suzanne Lacy Essay

515 Words3 Pages
Suzanne Lacy describes her role as an activist artist on page 54 of this chapter as she discusses her collaborative project with Leslie Labowitz, In Mourning and in Rage. The artist states: “The art is in making it compelling; the politics is in making it clear. In Mourning and in Rage took trivialized images of mourners as old, powerless women and transformed them into commanding seven-foot-tall figures angrily demanding an end to violence against women.” What did Lacy mean by this statement? Is performance art such as In Mourning and in Rage an effective means of communicating to the public? How does her recent work Whisper, the Waves, the Wind (fig. 61) compare? Be sure to watch the online video on Suzanne Lacy (found in the Web Links section) before answering this question. The statement: “The art is making it compelling; the politics is in making it clear” is a very distinct statement made by Lacy. I think she meant that the art of her statement is what draws her crowd in and the politics of her statement is what keeps her crowd watching. The statement that she made was a valid and powerful one. But, if she had just had a group of seven woman dressed in plain street clothes standing at a podium making their statement’s followed by the group chanting “In memory of our sister’s, we fight back” the result would have been very different. Though, a crowd may have gathered, they may not have been as compelled to stay. The unique way in which Lacy portrayed her message was the art. Yes, performance arts such as In Mourning and in Rage are effective means of communicating to the public because the message that is being portrayed is being represented by a performance of sorts that draws public attention. In the video, there were news camera men all over the streets video taping the performance. I am sure the performance was on the news which brings more public
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