Utterly Precarious: Carolee Schneemann In 5 Parts
Tuesday, April 24, 2012 – Thursday, May 31, 2012
6:00pm
@Slought
UTTERLY PRECARIOUS: CAROLEE SCHNEEMANN IN 5 PARTS
@ Slought Foundation, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Slought Foundation and The College of Physicians of Philadelphia are pleased to present Utterly Precarious: Carolee Schneemann in 5 Parts, beginning April 24, 2012 and continuing through May 2012. The project consists of a 5 part engagement with the artist Carolee Schneemann, whose work has profoundly shaped contemporary discourses on the body, sexuality, and gender since the 1960s. Probing the precariousness of nature, art, and life, Schneemann has continually foregrounded the relationship between the body of the artist and the social body. The project encompasses the following: an exhibition of her film works, a public conversation, a Master Class with students, a celebratory party for the artist's cat companions, and a museum tour.
This project is presented in partnership with the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Archives Seminal films from the 1960s, at Slought Foundation.
Acquisitions by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries and the Cinema Studies Program have enabled Slought Foundation to screen five works by Schneemann: Meat Joy (1964-2010); Fuses (1964-66), Water Light/Water Needle (1966), Body Collage (1967), and Viet-flakes (1965) will be on display April 26 through the end of May 2012.
Conversation (April 24, 2012, 6:30pm)
An evening lecture by Schneemann on the dais of historic Mitchell Hall at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, surrounded by paintings of the College's founding Fellows. After, Schneemann's conversants include Christine Poggi of the University of Pennsylvania and Aaron Levy of Slought Foundation.
Master class The artist engages freshmen from the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania in a private, filmed discussion within the Mütter Museum, where her father took her as a child.
Party (April 26, 2012, 6:30pm) Cat celebration at Slought Foundation in honor of Carolee's major cat companions (Kitch, Cluny, Vesper and Minos). Your pet cat is invited to participate in a gathering with other cats within a sheltered environment of leaves and fish.
Tour (April 27, 2012, noon) Schneemann will lead young people who are unfamiliar with the many galleries of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on a tour. She will reflect on her first art classes there, which inspired her artistic proclivities. The DVD of the performance Up To and Including her Limits (1976) as edited by Schneemann is now part of the Museum's permanent collection and will be continuously screened to coincide with the artist's visit to Philadelphia.
Acknowledgements Utterly Precarious: Carolee Schneemann in 5 Parts is presented by Slought Foundation and The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, in partnership with the Department the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The project has been co-curated by Aaron Levy (Executive Director and Chief Curator, Slought Foundation) and Jacqui Bowman, PhD (Director, Education and Public Initiatives, The College of Physicians). The Archives are co-curated by Aaron Levy, Jean-Michel Rabaté, and Osvaldo Romberg (Senior Curators, Slought Foundation). Archives through EAI/Electronic Arts Intermix.
Additional support provided by the Department of English, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the Kaja Silverman/Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award at the University of Pennsylvania. Special thanks: Andreea Bailuc, Mimi Cheng, Blaine K. Baxter, Diedra Krieger, William Keller, Nicola Gentili, Karen Beckman, Holly Pittman, Erica Levin, Adelina Vlas, Christine Poggi, Laura Kuhn, and Brian Wallace.
"Art History in the Present: Carolee Schneemann and her Circle," a Spring 2012 Spiegel Contemporary Art Freshman Seminar offered by the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania in conjunction with Utterly Precarious, is taught by Aaron Levy and developed in dialogue with Carolee Schneemann. The students are Jordyn Feingold, Emma Pfeiffer, Justin Reinsberg, Nicole Ripka, David Wilks, and Elliot Wolf.