Beginning with the Seventies: Radial Change

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Michael de Courcy, "Photograph of Helen Goodwin," 1968

courtesy of the artist.

Special Solstice Opening Thursday, June 21, 5–9 pm

Book Launch and Artist Talk with Jacqueline Hoàng Nguyễn, The Making of an Archive Thursday, June 21 at 5 pm, a collaboration with grunt gallery.

Performance led by artist Evann Siebens with choreographers James Gnam and Vanessa Goodman Thursday, June 21, at 6:30 pm

Performance and Discussion Afternoon with Justine Chambers, Peter Dickinson and Evann Siebens Thursday, July 12, at 3–5 pm

How is an archive formed? Memories of performance often exceed the containment of the document, whether photography, film, prop or testimony. As communities disperse and regroup over time, figures may slip away from the centre. Circling around the embodied archive, the exhibition Radial Change is drawn from the title of a dance work by Helen Goodwin. The elusive histories of Goodwin's choreography and her influence on the interdisciplinary art scene of the 1970s are explored in new installation works by Evann Siebens and by Michael de Courcy.

Rhoda Rosenfeld's photographs of Goodwin's Environmental Opera document the 1971 beach performance with an immersive, process-based lens. Artworks and objects from the Belkin's collection and archives track the performance of alter egos and overturn gender constructs, evoke absent bodies and recall remembered gestures. Kate Craig's film record of the final death-defying flight of Lady Brute and Jin-Me Yoon's Hey You, Ya You! (Jimmie Yoo) are joined by works by Eleanor Antin, Carole Itter, Walter Marchetti, Rosa Maria Robles, Carolee Schneemann, Atsuko Tanaka, Joyce Wieland and Cornelia Wyngaarden.

Beginning with the Seventies: Radial Change is curated by Lorna Brown and is the second of four exhibitions based upon the Belkin Art Gallery's research project investigating the 1970s, an era when social movements of all kinds – feminism, environmentalism, LGBTQ rights, access to health services and housing – began to coalesce into models of self-organization that overlapped with the production of art and culture. Noting the resurgence of art practice involved with social activism and an increasing interest in the 1970s from younger producers, the Belkin has connected with diverse archives and activist networks to bring forward these histories, to commission new works of art and writing and to provide a space for discussion and debate.