Barbara Hammer is an American feminist artist known as a pioneer of queer experimental and documentary film. In concert with an exhibition of her work at the Leslie Homan Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art, this volume seeks to celebrate the depth and expanse 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, this volume addresses critical themes that appear throughout Hammer’s work, including sensation and intimacy, lesbian representation, and the maintenance of illness, in addition to exploring the artist’s relationship to experimental queer cinema, feminist history, and environmental activism. Featuring a wide range of responses, from personal anecdotes to academic analysis and poetic interpretation, this volume highlights the resonating impact of Hammer’s artistic narrative across cinema studies, art history, queer theory, and feminist thought.
Table of contents:
Acknowledgements Screaming for Lesbian Visibility Gonzalo Casals Introduction Staci Bu Shea and Carmel Curtis Barbara Hammer: The Poetry of her Films Janlori Goldman Making Lesbians Visible: The Experimental Documentaries of Barbara Hammer as Queer Archive Ron Gregg Barbara Hammer and the Mutability of Film (Observations from an Archivist) Mark Toscano A Video Letter to Barbara Hammer Joey Carducci The Artist as Archivist, the Archive as Art Ann Cvetkovich Choreographing the Lesbian Possibility: Barbara Hammer’s Double Strength Krystyna Mazur Ways of the Flesh: Barbara Hammer’s Vertical Worlds Rizvana Bradley A Conversation with Barbara Hammer Jamillah James On Resisting Paradise Domitilla Olivieri Beyond Cultural Feminism: New Approaches to Barbara’s Hammer’s Early Films Greg Youmans Systems Breakdown: Medical Approaches David Napier in Conversation with Barbara Hammer Dearest Barbara Florrie Burke Author Biographies Checklist Credits / Colophon
