Author Description

Martha Wilson is an American feminist who began her career in the early 1970s. Working in the male-dominated Conceptualist milieu of the time, Wilson generated pioneering photographic and video work that explored her female subjectivity through role playing and invasions of male and other female personas. After moving to New York City in 1975, she further developed her performance practice in founding and directing Franklin Furnace, an artist-run centre dedicated to the exploration and promotion of innovative installation, performance and time-based art practices. This publication chronicles Wilson's journey from the virtual isolation of her early work to the transformative experience of working with then-unknown artists like Jenny Holzer and Shirin Neshat in a socially-engaged feminist art practice that defied and challenged established artistic and political values.