Artists Space

Body Language:
Studies in Female Expression

November 15, 1990 – January 5, 1991

A video program addressing gender issues, organized by Julie Zando.

A black and white close-up image of an adolescent girl, smiling at the camera. She is holding up a scrub brush in one hand and a bottle of Soft Scrub in the other and is wearing a bathrobe and a shower cap.
Mindy Faber. Still from Identity Crisis, 1989. 3 min. Photo: Micki McGee. [A black and white close-up image of an adolescent girl, smiling at the camera. She is holding up a scrub brush in one hand and a bottle of Soft Scrub in the other and is wearing a bathrobe and a shower cap.]

Body Language: Studies in Female Expression is a program of videotapes by women that address the problem of expression in a male dominated society. The tapes, selected from the United States, Canada, Belgium, and Austria, scan a spectrum of approaches ranging from the body as a visual textbook to exposing the cultural associations in "scientific" and "medical texts. Each tape employs various strategies of resistance against the silencing of their expression.

Two tapes, Kugelkopf by Mara Mattaschka and Am I My Mother's Keeper? by Sherry Kromer Shapiro investigate self-mutilation as a radical appropriation of language. In Schapiro's work, a woman explains, "I could turn blue in the face, crying for help, and no one would listen. But, if I was bruised and bleeding, people could see my need and they would help me." Working with the Media Workshop in Vienna, Ilse Gassinger's Exposed and Die Evidenz Des Kalkuels deconstructs the structuring influence of the male gaze. Mindy Faber's Identity Crisis demonstrates the influence of the gaze on the development of a female identity. Working in Toronto with sex-trade workers, Gwendolyn's Prowling By Night is a powerful indictment of the police and their attempts to silence AIDS education workers distributing information to prostitutes. Multi-layered text is used by Joelle de la Casiniere to tell the story of the 13th century mystic Haj-al-Mansour in a tour-de-force of speech, writing gestures, sound, and images. Leslie Singer's Laurie Sings Iggy is a smart, funny impersonation that interprets Leslie doing Laurie doing Iggy in a spiraling simulacrum. In a disturbing portrayal of urban ritual, Azian Nurudin's The Headhunters of Borneo pits the ritualistic nature of culture against America's materialism. We, by Shelly Silver, reminds us of the phallic underpinnings of Western culture while Barbara Lattanzi's Soma testifies to the body "speaking" through figures of speech.

Nothing here yet...

A black and white image of person in a coverall jumpsuit and backwards baseball cap reading aloud from a music stand. Behind them, a pair of sunglasses is shown on a white background.
Joelle de la Casiniere. Still from La Grimoire Magnetique, 1983. 26 minutes. Photo: Micki McGee. [A black and white image of person in a coverall jumpsuit and backwards baseball cap reading aloud from a music stand. Behind them, a pair of sunglasses is shown on a white background.]
White block text reads SPECIES EXTINCTION on a background of grey and white swirls.
Sherry Kromer Schapiro. Still from Am I My Mother's Keeper?, 1989. 5 min. Photo: Micki McGee. [White block text reads SPECIES EXTINCTION on a background of grey and white swirls.]
A black and white image of a shirtless woman holding a baby, while another woman looks on from a doorway to the right.
Azian Nurudin. Still from The Headhunters of Borneo, 1989. 10 min. Photo: Micki McGee. [A black and white image of a shirtless woman holding a baby, while another woman looks on from a doorway to the right.]
Two people in lab coats and protective goggles are shown in black and white, studying a beaker on the table in front of them.
Jo Anstey and Julie Zando. Still from The Bus Stops Here, 1990. 27 min. Photo: Micki McGee. [Two people in lab coats and protective goggles are shown in black and white, studying a beaker on the table in front of them.]

Body Language Press Release

Body Language Announcement

Body Language Film Program

Body Language Exhibition Catalogue

Artists Space programs are made possible by: the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, New York State Council on the Arts, and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; AT&T Foundation, Inc., The David Bermant Foundation: Color, Light, Motion, The Bohen Foundation, The Cowles Charitable Trust, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Inc., Horace w. Goldsmith Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, Jerome Foundation, The J.M. Kaplan Fund, The Dorothea L. Leonhardt Foundation, Inc., The Joe and Emily Lowe Foundation, Inc., The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, The Menemsha Fund, Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, Betty Parsons Foundation, The Reed Foundation, Inc., The Rockefeller Foundation, The Mark Rothko Foundation, Inc., and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.; American Express Company, The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., Consolidated Edison Company of New York, Inc., Equitable Real Estate Group, Inc., General Atlantic Corporation, R.H. Macy and Company, Inc., Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, Philip Morris Companies Inc., and U.S. Trust Company of New York; as well as Artwatch, Galleries in Support of Artists Space, Members and numerous Friends.
Artists Space is a member of the National Association of Artists Organizations (NAAO) and the National Alliance of Media Arts Centers (NAMAC).

    A black and white image of three people wearing winter coats and scarves, observing something to the left of the camera.
    Jo Anstey and Julie Zando. Still from The Bus Stops Here, 1990. 27 min. Photo: Micki McGee. [A black and white image of three people wearing winter coats and scarves, observing something to the left of the camera.]