Documentation of the Performance "Americana I Ching Apple Pie"

Inscriptions

Signed, in red pencil, lower right: C. Schneemann 3/78; signed and inscribed, in ink, along lower right edge, bottom to center: AmERicana I Ching ApplE PiE C.SchnEEmann 1975/PHOtographs c[circled] SU FRIEDRICH 1977

Label

In Americana I Ching Apple Pie, Carolee Schneemann uses photographic documentation of a performance to translate powerful messages about the historical injustices experienced by women. In this staged work—embodying the experimental art movement Fluxus, which emphasized the production of artwork rather than the product—Schneemann took miscellaneous objects from a garage sale and sold them as if they were baked good, parodying housewives working at fundraising events. The text employs dry humor to narrate women’s traditional role in the kitchen and even includes partial instructions on how to make an apple pie. The text further alludes to the Chinese text of I Ching, referencing Americans’ fascination with Asian culture in the late 1970s. Schneemann contributes to the social movement seeking to redefine a woman’s place in society by documenting a history of gender exclusion while using wry comedy to urge a future of social justice.

From the 2020 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 99, When Art Intersects History, curated by Allison Carrey '20, Class of 1954 Intern

Course History

SART 15, Drawing I, Gerald Auten, Spring 2012

ARTH 71, The "American Century": Modern Art in the United States, Mary Coffey, Winter 2015

ARTH 71, The "American Century": Modern Art in the United States. Mary Coffey, Winter 2015

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 99, When Art Intersects History, Allison Carey, Class of 2020, Class of 1954 Intern, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 7-April 26, 2020. l

Celebrating Twenty Years: Gifts in Honor of the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 11-December 12, 2005.

Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26,2009-March 15, 2010.

The Expanding Grid, Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 7-August 27, 2012.

Publication History

Katherine W. Hart et al., Celebrating Twenty Years: Gifts in Honor of the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, New Hampshire: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2005, pp. 66, ill. p. 67, cat. no. 29.

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009 p.146, no.120.

Allison Carey, A Space for Dialogue 99, When Art Intersects History, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2020.

Provenance

Monroe A. Denton, Jr., Brooklyn, New York; given to present collection, 2006.

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