Suzanne Lacy
1945–
Southern California in the 1970s was home to a strong feminist art movement, with many of the area’s art schools and universities becoming focal points of radical art. Suzanne Lacy first encountered the movement as an activist and psychology student at Fresno State University, where she studied with the feminist artist Judy Chicago. She continued working with Chicago at the California Institute of the Arts, where she also studied with Allan Kaprow and explored the transformative possibilities of performance art. Calling upon viewers to participate in her work, Lacy was a pioneer in what would come to be known as Social Practice art. Her performances, videos, and social interventions addressed a broad spectrum of women’s issues, including rape, poverty, abuse, and class inequality.
Learn Where the Meat Comes From is part of Lacy’s Anatomy Lessons series. The title was taken from a lesson by Julia Child, who explained to her public, “Taking the time to learn where the meat comes from will ensure your constant success.” Lacy follows a narration that she compiled from several sources in addition to Child—among them fitness guru Jack Lalanne—to disturbing extremes. She caresses the meat carcass suggestively, dons prosthetic teeth, and imitates a lamb’s movements, becoming more animal-like as the video progresses.
Meat had featured in several of Lacy’s earlier works, and her own body was a recurring subject as well: the diagram of cuts of meat in the background of Learn Where the Meat Comes From recalls the beef kidneys that Lacy nailed to the walls in her 1972 Ablutions performance as well as the legal contract she devised for selling her own body parts in Body Contract, the inaugural piece in the Anatomy Lessons series.
Introduction
Suzanne Lacy (born 1945) is an American artist, educator, writer, and professor at the USC Roski School of Art and Design. She has worked in a variety of media, including installation, video, performance, public art, photography, and art books, in which she focuses on "social themes and urban issues." She served in the education cabinet of Jerry Brown, then mayor of Oakland, California, and as arts commissioner for the city. She designed multiple educational programs beginning with her role as performance faculty at the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles.
Wikidata identifier
Q7650894
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed December 8, 2024.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, performance artist, photographer, video artist
ULAN identifier
500101539
Names
Suzanne Lacy
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed December 8, 2024.
