Martha Wilson: Staging the Self

Opening Reception Thursday 19 March at 8 pm Guided Tour with Artist Saturday 21 March at 2 pm Martha Wilson is an American feminist artist and gallery director who began her career in the early 1970s in Halifax while studying English Literature at Dalhousie University and teaching English at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Working in a male-dominated Conceptualist milieu at that time, Wilson generated pioneering photographic and video work that explored her female subjectivity through role playing, costume transformations and invasions of male and other female personas. She further developed her performative and video-based practice after moving to New York City in 1975 where she was also instrumental in founding and then directing Franklin Furnace, a downtown artist-run centre dedicated to the exploration and promotion of innovative installation, performance and time-based art practices. This exhibition chronicles the interwoven stages of Wilson’s creative contributions within the context of early feminist and socially engaged studio practice as well as her dissemination of the work of like-minded individuals through the auspices of Franklin Furnace. Central to the exhibition is Wilson’s presence as an agent of transformative change, initially in her artwork and then her facilitation of cultural change through her Directorial presence at Franklin Furnace. Wilson’s selection of 30 projects from 30 years of programming at Franklin Furnace also becomes a self-portrait of sorts as she highlights works that are historically significant for pushing boundaries within exhibition and display culture as well as society at large. Martha Wilson: Staging the Self is curated by Peter Dykhuis for the Dalhousie Art Gallery. The exhibition tour is co-organized with iCI (Independent Curators International), New York.