Hannah Wilke Research Paper

and used her own body as a main focus of her art. Her first major performance piece was Hannah Wilke Super-t-Art in 1974, which also became one of her most iconic photographic works. Her use of her body in her art also took off in 1974 with her nude photographic collection S.O.S — Starification Object Series. This work introduced her signature use of chewing gum vulva mini-sculptures stuck to her body and reflects her frequent use of the self-portrait. Wilke coined the term “performalist self-portraits” to describe her self-portraits that she directed others to photograph. Much of her work was aimed at exaggerating and satirizing hegemonic standards of femininity in America. Notable works of Wilke’s include her performance and photographic work So Help Me Hannah (1979), Gestures (1974), Hello Boys (1975), audio and text installation Intercourse with… (1974-1976), and Hannah Wilke Through the Large Glass, which she performed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1977. Her work was exhibited in The Brooklyn Museum, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Louisiana Museum in Copenhagen, the Museum de XX Jahrhunderts in Vienna, and the Tel Aviv Museum in Israel, among many others. She …show more content…
While various feminist theories are in disagreement about whether a woman can subvert the male gaze by reproducing and manipulating it, that idea served as the basis of Wilke’s feminist art. Her feminist critiques remain consistent throughout her work even when she is not the sole subject of it. Portrait of the Artist with her Mother, Selma Butter featuring her healthy, nude upper body next to her mother’s ailing, nude body is a clear example of Wilke’s commentary on femininity and objectification that doesn’t flaunt her beauty but rather uses it as a reference for hegemony. However, it wasn’t until Intra-Venus that she was taken seriously as a