00:00
/
00:00
Steele, Lisa
Birthday Suit – with Scars and Defects Birthday Suit – with Scars and Defects
1971 1971

Over approximately thirteen minutes, the artist chronologically traces every scar and defect acquired over the twenty-seven years of her life. Accompanying the slow, repetitive, extreme close-up shots is a narration recalling the date, location and cause of each mark. The artist’s direct address to the camera and refusal of the conditioned patriarchal ways of looking, restores agency to the feminine nude. Steele’s record-keeping through flesh memory transforms her scars and defects into embodied souvenirs of her lived experiences, encapsulating the notion that the “personal is political.”

Steele, Lisa
Kansas City MO 1947 Kansas City MO 1947
Birthday Suit – with Scars and Defects Birthday Suit – with Scars and Defects
1971 1971
black and white video recording on 3/4" u-matic tape with sound Vidéo noir et blanc (format U-Matic 3/4 po), sonore
13 min. 20 sec. (total duration)
Purchase, Olympic project funding, 1976 Achat grâce à une contribution spéciale dans le cadre des Jeux olympiques, 1976
19-090

Subscribe to our “This Week at Agnes” e-newsletter to stay abreast of events, news and opportunities at the art museum.