Cheri Gaulke (born 1954) is a visual artist most known for her role in the

Feminist Art Movement The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to produce feminist art, art that reflects women's lives and experiences, as well as to change the foundation for the production and perception of co ...

southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

in the 1970s and her work on gay and lesbian families.

Biography

Gaulke holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from

Minneapolis College of Art and Design The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) is a private college specializing in the visual arts and located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. MCAD currently enrolls approximately 800 students. MCAD is one of just a few major art schools to offer ...

and a Master of Arts degree (in Feminist Art/Education) from

Goddard College Goddard College is a progressive education private liberal arts low-residency college with three locations in the United States: Plainfield, Vermont; Port Townsend, Washington; and Seattle, Washington. The college offers undergraduate and gra ...

. In 1975, she moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and became involved with the

Feminist Studio Workshop Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

at the

Woman's Building The Woman's Building was a non-profit arts and education center located in Los Angeles, California. The Woman's Building focused on feminist art and served as a venue for the women's movement and was spearheaded by artist Judy Chicago, graphic de ...

. At the Feminist Studio Workshop, Gaulke studied with Suzanne Lacy and focused primarily on

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

. There she created a character she called Cinderella, who Gaulke describes as not conforming to any specific sex or gender role and thus "in a constant state of transformation." In addition to her solo work, Gaulke collaborated with Anne Gauldin to produce The Malta Project, in which the two performed rites related to female spirituality at prehistoric temples throughout Malta. Gaulke has been a co-founder of two collaborative feminist performance groups: Feminist Art Workers (1976–81), co-founded with

Nancy Angelo Nancy Angelo (born October 8, 1953 in Carson City, Nevada, USA) is an organizational psychologist and formerly a performance and video artist who took part in the feminist art movement in Los Angeles. As an artist, she is best known for co-found ...

, Candace Compton,

Vanalyne Green Vanalyne Green (born 1948) is an American artist who also teaches and writes about culture. She has screened her video work extensively in the United States and abroad, including The Whitney Biennial (1991), American Film Institute, Rotterdam Inte ...

, and Laurel Klick, and Sisters of Survival (SOS), co-founded in 1981 with Nancy Angelo,

Jerri Allyn Jerri Allyn is an American feminist performance, installation artist and educator based in Los Angeles, California. Biography Allyn earned an M.A. in Art and Community from Goddard College in 1978 and also attended The Feminist Studio Workshop ...

, Anne Gauldin, and Sue Maberry. Gaulke's last performance was in 1992 at Highways Performance, Santa Monica. Though Gaulke has moved away from performance, the feminist art strategies that she helped to innovate in the 1970s in southern California continue in her work. Her art continues to be a vehicle for social commentary and as a way to tell the stories of individuals and groups under-represented in society. She works in a variety of media, but mostly video,

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called ...

artists' book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

s, and

public art Public art is art in any media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and physically acce ...

. Such projects have included a video in collaboration with lesbian and gay teens, a photographic wall installation about lesbian and gay families, a

video installation Video installation is a contemporary art form that combines video technology with installation art, making use of all aspects of the surrounding environment to affect the audience. Tracing its origins to the birth of video art in the 1970s, it has ...

with Latino teenagers about the

L.A. River Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, and a video installation about kids’ perspectives on a river in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

. With her partner, Sue Maberry, Gaulke explored their relationship through the documentation series "Thicker than Blood: Our Lesbian Family" (1992). In an extension of this work, they later invited gay and lesbian parents with children to take traditional family portraits at Sears portrait studio, and to write about what family and marriage meant to them, particularly before the legalization of gay marriage in the United States. This later work manifested in the installation "Families Next Door" (1995) and the artist's book "Marriage Matters" (2005). Gaulke has completed three public art projects;-
Metro
Rail Station in Los Angeles that tells stories about an oft ignored urban river, an outdoor sculptural piece for a library in Lake View Terrace, and three stainless steel and glass glowing “Pillars of Community” for the City of

Lakewood, California Lakewood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 80,048 at the 2010 census. It is bordered by Long Beach on the west and south, Bellflower on the north, Cerritos on the northeast, Cypress on the east, ...

. A black granite memorial honoring the service of Filipino World War II veterans was dedicated on November 11, 2006 in a park in

Historic Filipinotown Historic Filipinotown (alternately known as HiFi ) is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles. It is one of the six Asian Pacific Islander neighborhoods (Chinatown, Little Tokyo, Historic Filipinotown, Little Bangladesh, Koreatown, and Thai Town ...

, Los Angeles, the first such monument in the U.S. In 1991 Gaulke was an Artist Book Resident at

Women's Studio Workshop Women's Studio Workshop (WSW) is a nonprofit visual arts studio and private press offering residencies and educational workshops, located in Rosendale, New York. The workshop was founded in 1974 by Ann Kalmbach, Tatana Kellner, Anita Wetzel, ...

in Rosendale, NY. While a resident, Gaulke published ''Impedement'', a handmade artist's book that investigates the abuse of women’s footwear and feet through the ages, from the ancient Chinese

foot binding Foot binding, or footbinding, was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls in order to change their shape and size. Feet altered by footbinding were known as lotus feet, and the shoes made for these feet were kno ...

to high heeled shoes of the present. Personal and historical narratives illustrate the results of cultures’ persisting

foot fetish Foot fetishism, also known as foot partialism or podophilia, is a pronounced sexual interest in feet. It is the most common form of sexual fetishism for otherwise non-sexual objects or body parts. Characteristics and related fetishes Foot f ...

. Nested within the book is a pop-up which presents the reader with a packet of “seeds” for change. ''Impedement'' was published as an edition of 200. Gaulke has received grants from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, the

California Arts Council The California Arts Council is a state agency based in Sacramento, United States. Its eight council members are appointed by the Governor and the state Legislature. The agency's mission is to advance California through arts, culture and creativit ...

, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, and the Brody Arts Fund. She has exhibited her work in numerous formats all over the world, including exhibitions at the Los Angeles Art Association (LAAA) and

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

as well as on buses and in churches. Gaulke's 2013 video ''Cycle of the Witch'', which explores the development of her identity from her childhood as a Midwestern minister's daughter to her adulthood as a lesbian feminist artist living in Los Angeles, was screened at the 'Tapping the Third Realm' exhibition at the

Otis College of Art and Design Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

and at Loyola Marymount University in 2013. Her 2016 video 'I Am Be,' which retells the myth of Demeter and Persephone to explore the theme of sexual violence, was screened at the Harvard Westlake School in 2016. In 1986 Gaulke received the Vesta Award from the Los Angeles Woman's Building for Contributions to Performance art, and she was honored with a mid-career fellowship from the Cultural Affairs Department (COLA grant) in 2004-05. In 2013, she received the Art as a Hammer Award from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics.

Film/video work

* Gloria's Call (2018) is a short documentary about emeritus USC professor, Gloria Orenstein and her relationships with surrealist women artists including

Leonora Carrington Mary Leonora Carrington (6 April 191725 May 2011) was a British-born Mexican artist, surrealist painter, and novelist. She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of ...

. It has won numerous awards at film festivals internationally. * Cycle of the Witch, 2013, 12 minutes. This was created for the exhibition Tapping the Third Realm, curated by Meg Linton and Carolyn Peter,

and

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

, September 22 – December 8, 2013.

References

Bibliography

* Payne, R. "Shoe Fetish" (review) ''Artweek'' v. 20 (December 21, 1989) p. 11-12 * Apple, J. "Circus Moon"(Performance Review, Laguna Art Museum, California). ''High Performance'' v. 12 (Spring 1989) p. 68-9 * Geer, S. "Changes of the Moon" (Performance Review, Laguna Art Museum, California). ''Artweek'' v. 19 (October 29, 1988) p. 6-7 * "The Function of Art in Culture Today" 0 artists, who have appeared in ''High Performance'', offer short statements ''High Performance'' v. 11 (Spring/Summer 1988) p. 26-75 * Geer, S. "Stamping on Fertile Ground [Performance Review, Church in Ocean Park, Santa Monica, CA.) ''Artweek'' v. 18 (September 26, 1987) p. 8 * Raven, A. (Performance Review, Franklin Furnace, NY). ''New Art Exa''miner v. 14 (June 1987) p. 61-2 * Burnham, L. F. "Our Lady of L.A." ''High Performance'' v. 10 no. 3 (1987) p. 98 * Sandford, M. R. "Cheri Gaulke & Christine Papalexis: Virgin" (Performance Review, Franklin Furnace, NY). ''High Performance'' v. 10 no. 2 (1987) p. 72-3 * Lieff, L. "The Postcard Project" [interview]. ''Heresies'' v. 6 no. 2 ( [1987]) p. 38-40 * James, D. E. "A Case of Blaspheminism" (Performance Review). ''Artweek'' v. 16 (June 1, 1985) p. 7 * Burnham, L. F. "Revelations of the Flesh [Performance Review, Wilshire United Methodist Church, Los Angeles). ''High Performance'' v. 8 no. 2 (1985) p. 64-6 * "California Feminists: Cheri Gaulke and Linda Nishio." ''TDR: The Drama Review'' 49, no. 1 (2005) p. 50-53 *Wolverton, T. "Taking the Leap (Performance Review, University of California, Los Angeles). ''Artweek'' v. 15 (March 31, 1984) p. 9 * Norklun, K. "Body Politic" (Performance Review, Church in Ocean Park, Santa Monica, Calif). ''Artweek'' v. 14 (May 14, 1983) p. 9 * Buchanan, N. "Sure-footed Balancing: DTLA." ''Artweek'' v. 11 (July 5, 1980) p. 5-6 * Gaulke, C. "Teaching Environmental Art in Los Angeles." ''Artweek'' v. 24 (September 23, 1993) p. 24+ * Scoates, C. ''Afamilyaffair: Gay and Lesbian Issues of Domestic Life'' (exhibition catalog from Atlanta College of Art Gallery, March 17 – April 30, 1995. * Brown, B. and A. Raven, ''Women & Their Art''. NewSage Press, 1989.

External links

Cheri Gaulke's Website

Cheri Gaulke Vimeo Channel

Activist Video Archive interview with Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry
(2018)
Woman's Building records, 1960-2016

Getty Research Institute The Getty Research Institute (GRI), located at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California, is "dedicated to furthering knowledge and advancing understanding of the visual arts".

, Los Angeles, Accession No. 2017.M.43. The archive consists of administrative files, artist files, publications, correspondence, project files, audio and video recordings, and digital files produced for various projects.
L.A. Artists for Survival records relating to Target L.A., 1981-1984

, Los Angeles, Accession No. 2017.M.46. The collection documents anti-nuclear war festivals in 1982 and 1983 organized by L.A. Artists for Survival, one of the later generation of artists' groups to emerge from the Los Angeles Woman's Building. * Feminist Art Workers records, 1976-2013,

, Los Angeles. Accession No. 2017.M.4 The archive consists of papers, photographs, audiovisual and born digital material documenting the performances, exhibitions, and administrative activities of the Feminist Art Workers. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaulke, Cheri Feminist artists 1954 births Living people American women performance artists Public art Book artists American performance artists Artists from California American women video artists American video artists Women book artists American women installation artists American installation artists Minneapolis College of Art and Design alumni Goddard College alumni 21st-century American women artists Lesbian artists 21st-century LGBT people