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Nun and Deviant

Nancy Angelo

1976 00:20:28 United StatesEnglishB&WMono4:3
Tags:
Feminism, Gender, Performance, Video History

Description

A classic example of feminist performance videos of the 1970s, which often incorporated autobiography, expansion of self through personae, and assertions of a new identity for women. In Nun and Deviant the performers come to happier terms with their identities both as women and as artists. As Angelo and Compton don and dismantle stereotypical guises before the camera/viewer, Nun and Deviant explores how repressive representations circulating in our culture are formulated as opposites such as Madonna-whore (nun-deviant)—cliches that force women to assume restrictive, paradoxical roles.

An excerpt of this title (13:00) is also available on Surveying the First Decade: Volume 1.

About Nancy Angelo

Working in video and performance, from 1976-80 Nancy Angelo was a member of Sisters of Survival, a performance group that "used the nun image symbolically", and a member of the Feminist Art Workers, along with Vanalyne Green, Cheri Caulke, and Laurel Klick.

 

Angelo was actively involved with the Los Angeles Women's Building, an outgrowth of the Feminist Studio Workshop (FSW). Established in 1972 as a college and graduate-level school for women in the arts, FSW had a core faculty of Sheila de Bretteville, Arlene Raven, Deena Metzger, Suzanne Lacy, Helen Roth, and Ruth Iskin. The Woman's Building was founded a year later by Judy Chicago, de Bretteville, and Raven. Both organizations were unique in their aim to reinvent the institution according to feminist principles. Angelo directed the educational programs at the Women's Building and, along with Annette Hunt, Jerri Allyn and Candice Compton, co-founded the Los Angeles Women's Video Center (LAWVC). Angelo and Compton collaborated on the videotape Nun and Deviant (1976), and the work reflects many of the theoretical concerns and activities generated within these pioneering institutions. The videotape archives of the LAWVC were part of the Long Beach Museum of Art video collection, which is now housed at the Getty Research Institute.