We Keep Our Victims Ready: Difference between revisions

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Artist: Karen Finley

Year: 1990

Date of Action: May 1990

Region: North America

Location: Los Angeles, California

Subject: Explicit Sexuality, Nudity, Political/Economic/Social Opinion, Sexual/Gender Orientation

Medium: Performance Art

Confronting Bodies: The National Endowment for the Arts

Description of Artwork: In this piece of performance art, Karen Finley exposed her body and many aspects of the human body that we, as a society, try so hard to ignore or hide. Smearing chocolate cake across her bare chest and wearing only panties and a red bandanna, she delivers a series of monologues about artistic, sexual, emotional and political abuse.

The Incident: The performance generated a lot of excitement and controversy. A group which called itself the Traditional Values Coalition took issue with the piece and planned to protest at one of its performances, but did not follow through. Due to congressional debate and political dissent, John Frohnmayer, chief of the National Endowment for the Arts, decided to veto the NEA grant awarded to Finley.

Results of Incident: In 1991, a lawsuit was brought against the NEA after its chairman, Frohnmayer, rescinded grants for four performance artists out of fear of criticism from conservative media representatives and politicians. The four artists who were denied grants joined together to sue Frohnmayer. Referred to as the "NEA Four", they are: Karen Finley, Tim Miller, John Fleck, and Holly Hughes--three of the rejected artists are gay and deal with homosexuality in their work; the fourth, Karen Finley, is an outspoken feminist. In 1993, courts ruled in their favor and all received compensation surpassing their grant amounts.

Source:

'NEA Four' Grant Denial Questioned : Arts: ACLU claims transcripts indicate grants were denied on political, not artistic, grounds.

STAGE REVIEW : Finley Exposes Plenty in 'Victims' : The performance artist's 'We Keep Our Victims Ready' exhibits a kind of purposeful schizophrenia as it uncovers the nastiness we would rather sweep under the rug.

@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 |region=North America
 |artist=Karen Finley,
-|subject=Explicit Sexuality, Sexual/Gender Orientation
+|subject=Explicit Sexuality, Nudity, Political/Economic/Social Opinion, Sexual/Gender Orientation
 |confronting_bodies=The National Endowment for the Arts
 |medium=Performance Art
 |date_of_action=May 1990
 |location=Los Angeles, California
-|description_of_content=In this piece of performance art, Karen Finley exposes her body and manifests many of the aspects of the human body that we, as a society, try so hard to ignore or hide. She wears nothing but undergarments and a red bandanna as she delivered a series of monologues about artistic, sexual, emotional and political abuse, and smeared a chocolate cake across her bare chest.
+|description_of_content=In this piece of performance art, Karen Finley exposed her body and many aspects of the human body that we, as a society, try so hard to ignore or hide. Smearing chocolate cake across her bare chest and wearing only panties and a red bandanna, she delivers a series of monologues about artistic, sexual, emotional and political abuse.
-|description_of_incident=Due to congressional debate and political dissent, John Frohnmayer, chief of the National Endowment for the Arts, decided to veto the grant intended for Finley.
+|description_of_incident=The performance generated a lot of excitement and controversy. A group which called itself the Traditional Values Coalition took issue with the piece and planned to protest at one of its performances, but did not follow through.  Due to congressional debate and political dissent, John Frohnmayer, chief of the National Endowment for the Arts, decided to veto the NEA grant awarded to Finley.
-|description_of_result=In 1991, there was a lawsuit against the National Endowment because the chairman had rejected four different performance artists' grants for fear of criticism from conservative media representatives and politicians. It was clear that Frohnmayer rejected these artists and prevented them from being successful for fear of negative public opinion. The four artists who were denied grants joined together to sue Frohnmayer.
+|description_of_result=In 1991, a lawsuit was brought against the NEA after its chairman, Frohnmayer, rescinded grants for four performance artists out of fear of criticism from conservative media representatives and politicians. The four artists who were denied grants joined together to sue Frohnmayer. Referred to as the "NEA Four", they are: Karen Finley, Tim Miller, John Fleck, and Holly Hughes--three of the rejected artists are gay and deal with homosexuality in their work; the fourth, Karen Finley, is an outspoken feminist. In 1993, courts ruled in their favor and all received compensation surpassing their grant amounts.
+|image=Karen-Finley.jpg
 }}
 [http://articles.latimes.com/1991-11-11/entertainment/ca-864_1_karen-finley 'NEA Four' Grant Denial Questioned : Arts: ACLU claims transcripts indicate grants were denied on political, not artistic, grounds.]
 [http://articles.latimes.com/1991-11-11/entertainment/ca-864_1_karen-finley STAGE REVIEW : Finley Exposes Plenty in 'Victims' : The performance artist's 'We Keep Our Victims Ready' exhibits a kind of purposeful schizophrenia as it uncovers the nastiness we would rather sweep under the rug.]