Martha Wilson Bowled Over, 2015
Photo and digital facilitation by Michael Katchen in style antique frame.
20.07 x 16.14 x 0.98 in
Limited to 5 numbered and signed copies and 2 artist's proofs
Questions about identity have underscored the forty-year-long career of Martha Wilson, a feminist performance artist who emerged as part of the nascent downtown New York scene in the 1970s. Wilson often impersonates female figures throughout history in her performances and staged photographs. In her 1974 Portfolio of Models series, the artist dressed up as various female stereotypes—The Goddess, The Lesbian, The Housewife—employing a satiric wit to reveal the role-playing that takes place in everyday life.
With Bowled Over, Wilson dons the bowler hat of the surrealist painter René Magritte. Thus disguised and adorned with the “master's” clouds, she tips the image, making any return to reason impossible. She then watches us, upside down, as we struggle in vain to right the representation of the world.
33.27 x 27.36 x 1.77 in ( 84.5 x 69.5 x 4.5 cm )
29.13 x 20.87 x 1.57 in ( 74 x 53 x 4 cm )
10.63 x 7.87 in ( 27,94 x 20,32 cm )
Each 70.87 x 38.98 in
19.69 x 14.17 x 1.18 in ( 50 x 36 x 3 cm )
17.32 x 14.17 x 1.18 in ( 44,8 x 36,3 x 3 cm )