Acts of Selfhood: Female Performance Artists


Written by Leanna Robinson 

If the art world is a microcosm of our society at large, then the performance stage presents a unique opportunity for artists to write or rewrite reality as they would prefer it to be. It’s undeniable that women continue to face a host of gender-specific difficulties, both in society and in art, whether it’s lack of representation, repression of agency, or objectification—not to mention such intersectional issues as age, race and sexual orientation.

It’s normal for performance artists of any gender to wrestle with identity and create work around that, but it’s arguably more complex for female-identifying artists, as women’s bodies have historically been wrapped up under the toxic influence of the male gaze, ownership and unethical power exchanges. When simply performing as a woman on stage, these are underlying factors, whether or not the artist’s work deals with those subjects explicitly.

Los Angeles–based performance artist Kim Ye addresses these patriarchal power dynamics in her work through a lens of BDSM and intimacy. In much of Ye’s work she situates herself as an educator for the audience, as many of her performances have a specific message that she enacts. In Taken Down (2018), Ye hired a cis white man to take down artwork exhibited in her group show. Audiences peep through holes cut into tarps blocking the entryways of the gallery to watch Ye instruct the man to get naked as she films him. Themes of intimacy and power are also in play in The Femme Gaze Fotobooth (2017) in which participants are instructed to pose in conjunction with Ye’s desires, and in Casually Destroying the Patriarchy (2018), in which Ye chips away at a giant wall of ice with stiletto heels. Ye fearlessly addresses sensitive subjects and successfully uses her medium to accurately lead viewers into territory that some would consider radical…

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