Barbara Hammer: Evidentary Bodies

Barbara Hammer (b. 1939) is an American feminist artist known as a pioneer of queer experimental and documentary film. In October 2017, Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art will present a comprehensive solo exhibition to celebrate the depth and expa nse of Hammer’s five decades of art making.

Bringing together both known and previously unseen works of film and video, installations, works on paper, and material from her archive, the exhibition addresses critical themes that appear in Hammer’s work, inc luding: lesbian representation, subjectivity, and sexuality; intimacy and sensation; and conditions and maintenance of life and illness. This exhibition highlights the resonating impact of Hammer’s artistic narrative and material experimentation across dis ciplines within queer art history.

Additionally, as part of this exhibition, we are putting together a publication that will touch on different aspects of Hammer’s body of wor k and practice. The material included will look at her work in relationship to experimental queer cinema; lesbian sexuality and lesbian feminist history; hapticity and wildness; viruses, medicine, and environment; to name a few. We desire for the book to f eature a wide range of responses, from academic analysis to poetic interpretation, sprinkled with personal and artistic anecdotes. More of a hybrid monograph and catalogue raisonne, we are very excited that this book will be the first of its kind that cele brates five decades of Hammer’s work.