So much to see and think about in the Carolee Schneemann retrospective 'Body Politics' at the Barbican Art Gallery in London. Dance, performance, visual art and more centred around the body, feminism, anti-militarism and a critique of established art practice. A few highlights for me:
Noise Bodies (1965)
Schneemann and collaborator James Tenney created a 'body sound system' attaching metallic objects and other materials to their bodies that were activated as they moved around.
Dialectics of Liberation (1967)
Schneemann lived in London for a while (in Belsize Park) and staged a 'happening' at the Dialectics of Liberation event at the Roundhouse in 1967 - famously attended by among others Allen Ginsberg; Stokely Carmichael, R D Laing and Herbert Marcuse. The exhibition includes some interesting documentation with Schneemann clearly unhappy about some of the disorganised arrangements and her marginalisation as a woman artist.
Mortal Coils (1995)
This later work mourns the passing of friends and like minded spirits including Derek Jarman, recalling a final meeting with him in a Covent Garden cafe- 'We blew somber kisses. I walked away knowing we couldn't meet again'.
The exhibition continues until 8 January 2023
