Hannah Wilke

SPONTANEITY. From the Gift Science Archive guiding lights.

Really, one could just suggest that you return to PERFORMALIST SELF PORTRAITURE, but where is the fun in that? Wilke’s work with her body, with her image and with her words is a touchstone for Sands. Here are some highlights – some of her words and some of the words that she has inspired in Sands... “Exposing the truth is like nudity.” (a quote from Wilke often recited by SMW)

“Hannah used to talk about being spontaneous and I think this is mainly what it is all about, being spontaneous and not planning too much when working. Like grooving with the energies of the universe will provide ultimate meaning.” (SMW quote in reflection note for archive #00180-2009-PSP-BigPumpkinSeries-079)

“...like Hannah Wilke, which I thought was so beautiful, she was wearing high heels, high heels and nothing else. So, she was all naked, but she had those high heels on, and she said, ‘These are my plinths.’ So suddenly she was a sculpture, in those high heels…” (SMW in META-ARCHIVE conversation with ROBIN Wassink-Murray and Radna Rumping, 24 July 2020)

“Performalist. It’s funny when your image becomes part of your work. Hannah did it because she was beautiful and that was troublesome for feminists, they thought it was easy, but it wasn’t. I’ve been objectified in different ways – my face not being good enough, always commenting on my weight (I think the unusual bits of me are part of what make me queer). Who makes them entitled to someone else’s physicality? Carolee always told me to go where the difficulty is, and that is (my) physicality. So, I made it central because people thought it was important somehow to draw my attention to. Sometimes I wish I could have been more handsome but then that was all I would’ve been known as. I can bridge the more and less beautiful.” (SMW quote in reflection note for archive #00068-1993/1995-C-SignatureCollage-047) – MH. More “Exposing the truth is like nudity.” (a quote from Wilke often recited by SMW)

“Hannah used to talk about being spontaneous and I think this is mainly what it is all about, being spontaneous and not planning too much when working. Like grooving with the energies of the universe will provide ultimate meaning.” (SMW quote in reflection note for archive #00180-2009-PSP-BigPumpkinSeries-079)

“...like Hannah Wilke, which I thought was so beautiful, she was wearing high heels, high heels and nothing else. So, she was all naked, but she had those high heels on, and she said, ‘These are my plinths.’ So suddenly she was a sculpture, in those high heels…” (SMW in META-ARCHIVE conversation with ROBIN Wassink-Murray and Radna Rumping, 24 July 2020)

“Performalist. It’s funny when your image becomes part of your work. Hannah did it because she was beautiful and that was troublesome for feminists, they thought it was easy, but it wasn’t. I’ve been objectified in different ways – my face not being good enough, always commenting on my weight (I think the unusual bits of me are part of what make me queer). Who makes them entitled to someone else’s physicality? Carolee always told me to go where the difficulty is, and that is (my) physicality. So, I made it central because people thought it was important somehow to draw my attention to. Sometimes I wish I could have been more handsome but then that was all I would’ve been known as. I can bridge the more and less beautiful.” (SMW quote in reflection note for archive #00068-1993/1995-C-SignatureCollage-047) – MH.

Less