Diana Baker Smith and Kelly Doley
2015
Performance Lecture
30 minutes

The Lucy R. Lippard Lecture engages with the histories of feminist art and activism in Australia through a series of site specific performance lectures. The project takes as its starting point a number of informal discussions and lectures held in Australia in 1975 by the American art critic and curator Lucy R. Lippard about gender and inequity in the arts. Lippard’s visit has since become legendary, contributing to the Women’s Art Movement in Australia and other important feminist activities, including the establishment of the Women’s Art Register and the feminist art journal Lip.

Baker Smith and Doley revisit Lippard’s visit as a way to open up the story and consider the relevance of feminist art histories in the contemporary context.  They return to the archive and interview artists and activists involved in the Women’s Art Movement, including: Jude Adams, Bonita Ely, Anne Marsh, Anne Newmarch and Ann Stephen. Building on the hazy memories, anecdotes and rumours that circulated after the event, they reanimate this historical moment, while also reflecting on the unreliable nature of archival research.

The Lucy R. Lippard Lecture was first presented as part of the Ideas Platform at Artspace in Sydney.