Born in 1935 and a native of New York City, Eleanor Antin is a performance, filmmaker, and installation artist. In Antin’s three decade long stay in the art world has created a great name for herself in the performance art world and is permanently being showed at the Ronald Feldman Fine Arts Gallery in New York City. Currently, Antin is living in San Diego with her husband poet/critic David Antin and son. Antin is the Professor Emeritus in the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego. Antin’s work has been compared to those of Carolee Schneemann and Judy Chicago and has been characterized as one that is “largely concerned with issues of identity and the role of women in society” (Wikipedia site on Eleanor Antin).
One of Antin’s most well known works is the 51 postcard series titled “100 Boots.” This piece lasted between 1971-1973 and involved masses amounts of these specific 51 postcards being sent to people around the world. Quoted from PBS Art 21 Antin made a statement about her “100 Boots” series. “Somehow it came to me in a dream. There! Black boots! Big black boots. I got them at the Army-Navy Surplus then I printed them up on postcards. Over the course of it- finally two and a half years- fifty-one cards were mailed out to about a thousand people around the world. Now it is a piece that I see as a kind of pictorial novel that was sent through the mail, came unannounced unasked for. It came in the middle of people’s lives.” Showing at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1973 the show has been described as changing the way art functioned in the 70’s; the American Vietnam Era. In the photos on the postcards, these boots go from every day American tasks to anti war situations that would later on appear as legendary icons of the specific time period documented.
An early piece of Antin’s that I found amazingly striking was titled “Carving: A Traditional Sculpture.” With this progressive piece, Antin photographed her body at different stages of her month long crash-dieting experiment. L.A. performance artist Cheri Gaulke described Antin’s piece as performance that existed between July 15 and August 21 of 1972. Antin put herself on a strict diet and photographed her body each morning from four different angles. This piece was very much about using her body as a material and tool but also doing so while maintaining her Greek sculpture aesthetic.
Most of Antin’s other works are performances where she creates a specific time period and uses parts of history and recreates the moment. In an interview with Linda Montano Antin talks about how and why her work has such a great historical presence within it. She talked about how she grew up reading and researching great people of the past. She dreamt of victory and power and decided that is what she enjoyed most while her performances were being put together. Because she works at the University she utilizes her unlimited access to the school’s library when researching and creating her time period for her next performance.
I felt more attached to Antin’s earlier performance work and am into her process of documenting her performances. Antin has a strong idea of what she wants her to performances due to the heavy amounts of research she completes before beginning each performance. Even though I admire her exact awareness of all that goes on in her performances, I have found that I thoroughly enjoy the surprises at the end of each of my works.
Art 21 Website for Eleanor Antin
University of California Press Interview with Antin
Ronald Feldman Fine Art Gallery
Article about "100 Boots" Series
Art 21 on "100 Boots" Series
Cheri Gaulke's Article on Feminist Performance Art
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