Hannah Wilke
So Help Me Hannah, 1978
Black and white photograph
50 x 57 cm, 19 3/4 x 22 1/2 in framed
© Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon and Andrew Scharlatt, Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles. Licensed by VAGA at Artist’s Rights Society (ARS), New York, DACs, London
- Photographs documented a performance in 1978 at PS. 1 in long Island, City, New York, shot by Goddard. - Wilke called the series one of her earliest collaborations, saying,...
- Photographs documented a performance in 1978 at PS. 1 in long Island, City, New York, shot by Goddard.
- Wilke called the series one of her earliest collaborations, saying, ‘I reappropriated back ray-guns that were gifts to Oldenberg from 1969-78,’ as he amassed a collection for his installation the ‘Ray Gun Wing’ which was on view at the Whitney at the same time as the P.S. 1 installation and where he named friends who had helped him get the guns but only credited Wilke as ‘Group W’.
- The gun is at once both a phallic and a symbol of men’s violence against women.
- Nancy Princenthal writes in ‘Hannah Wilke’, 'Melancholy, fatigue, and even helplessness alternate with poses that present her, albeit ruefully, as an armed avenger or martial goddess. As so often, she caught the contradiction with neat economy title', an old North American expression of exasperation/complaint akin to 'so help me God'.
- The performances that were also part of the ‘So help Me Hannah’ series were presented 5 times between 179 and 1985, each about an 30 minutes long.
- Wilke called the series one of her earliest collaborations, saying, ‘I reappropriated back ray-guns that were gifts to Oldenberg from 1969-78,’ as he amassed a collection for his installation the ‘Ray Gun Wing’ which was on view at the Whitney at the same time as the P.S. 1 installation and where he named friends who had helped him get the guns but only credited Wilke as ‘Group W’.
- The gun is at once both a phallic and a symbol of men’s violence against women.
- Nancy Princenthal writes in ‘Hannah Wilke’, 'Melancholy, fatigue, and even helplessness alternate with poses that present her, albeit ruefully, as an armed avenger or martial goddess. As so often, she caught the contradiction with neat economy title', an old North American expression of exasperation/complaint akin to 'so help me God'.
- The performances that were also part of the ‘So help Me Hannah’ series were presented 5 times between 179 and 1985, each about an 30 minutes long.
Provenance
The ArtistEstate of Hannah Wilke
Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon, and Andrew Scharlatt, Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles (by descent)