Faith Wilding (born 1943) is a Paraguayan American multidisciplinary artist - which includes but is not limited to: watercolor, performance art, writing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, and

digital art Digital art, or the digital arts, is artistic work that uses Digital electronics, digital technology as part of the creative or presentational process. It can also refer to computational art that uses and engages with digital media. Since the 1960 ...

. She is also an author, educator, and activist widely known for her contribution to the progressive development of

feminist art 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 ...

. She also fights for ecofeminism, genetics, cyberfeminism, and reproductive rights. Wilding is

Professor Emerita ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

of performance art at the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a Private university, private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which gr ...

Personal life and education

Faith Wilding was born in 1943 in

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

and emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1961. She holds a degree in English from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

. In 1969 she began her graduate studies and then received her

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

degree from

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

.Jane F. Gerhard.
The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and the Power of Popular Feminism, 1970-2007
'. University of Georgia Press; 1 June 2013. . p. 27. She was married to Everett Frost, an English professor. Wilding and her husband were anti-war activists and members of the

Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...

. While in Fresno, Wilding and her friend Suzanne Lacy became activists for the feminist movement.

Career

Wilding became a teaching assistant in the Feminist Art Program

Judy Chicago Judy Chicago (born Judith Sylvia Cohen; July 20, 1939) is an American feminist artist, art educator, and writer known for her large collaborative art installation pieces about birth and creation images, which examine the role of women in history ...

founded at

California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers 60 ba ...

, in 1970.Jane F. Gerhard.
The Dinner Party: Judy Chicago and the Power of Popular Feminism, 1970-2007
'. University of Georgia Press; 1 June 2013. . p. 27–28. While there, she participated in the month-long, ground-breaking feminist exhibition

Womanhouse ''Womanhouse'' (January 30 – February 28, 1972) was a feminist art installation and performance space organized by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, co-founders of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) Feminist Art Program, and was the ...

, held in an empty house in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

in 1972. For ''Womanhouse'' she made ''Crocheted Environment'' which she originally called ''Womb Room'' (1972) as well as the performance work ''Waiting''. Wilding wrote about 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 ...

in her book ''By Our Own Hands'' (Los Angeles, 1976). She has worked in various media including art, video, installations, and performances. Her work has been exhibited in North America, Europe and Asia, including at the

Bronx Museum of the Arts The Bronx Museum of the Arts (BxMA), also called the Bronx Museum of Art or simply the Bronx Museum, is an American cultural institution located in Concourse, Bronx, New York. The museum focuses on contemporary and 20th-century works created by ...

, the

Whitney Museum of Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a modern and contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. The institution was foun ...

, and the Drawing Center, all in New York City; in Los Angeles at the Museum of Contemporary Art and the

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

; the Riverside Art Museum;

documenta Documenta (often stylized documenta) is an Art exhibition, exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. Documenta was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgarte ...

X, Kassel; Ars Electronica Center, Linz; The Next Five Minutes Festival, Amsterdam; and Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid. Her audio work has been commissioned and broadcast by RIAS Berlin; WDR Cologne; and

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

. Wilding taught at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has worked as a Research Fellow at the Studio for Creative Inquiry at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

, and a faculty member of the Master of Fine Arts in Visual Art Program at Vermont College,

Norwich University Norwich University is a private university in Northfield, Vermont, United States. The university was founded in 1819 as the "American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy". It is the oldest of six senior military college, senior militar ...

. She has received several grants and awards in art, including a 2009

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

. In 2014 Wilding's solo exhibition and retrospective, ''Fearful Symmetries'' opened at Threewalls gallery in Chicago, Illinois. Curated by Shannon Stratton, the exhibition traveled to Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee; The Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, California; the University of Houston-Clear Lake in Houston, Texas and the Miller Gallery (now ICA) at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The exhibition resulted in the publication of a book by the same name featuring essays by Jenni Sorkin, Amelia Jones, Keith Vaughn, Irina Aristarkova, Mario Ontiveros; Wilding's own writing and interviews by Daniel Tucker and Mira Schor. She was interviewed for the 2010 film '' !Women Art Revolution''.

subRosa

In 1998, Wilding co-founded with artist Hyla Willis, subRosa, a cyberfeminist organization. The manifesto for subRosa states: “subRosa is a reproducible cyberfeminist cell of cultural researchers committed to combining art, activism, and politics to explore and critique the effects of the intersections of the new information and biotechnologies on women’s bodies, lives, and work… Let a million subRosas bloom!” subRosa has performed, exhibited, lectured and published in the US, Spain, Britain, Holland, Germany, Croatia, Macedonia, Mexico, Canada, Slovenia, and Singapore. Recent Wilding/subRosa performances/exhibitions include: “The Interventionists”, MASSMoCA; “BioDifference” Biennial of Electronic Arts, Perth, Australia; Performance International, Mexico City, and Mérida, Yucatán; “Cloning Cultures,” National University, Singapore; Welcome to the Revolution, Zurich; Art of Maintenance, Kunstakademie, Vienna. Their works include "Feminist Matter(s): Propositions and Undoing", staged for the Pittsburgh Biennial 2011, that invited visitors to discuss the representation of women in the history of science and technology at tea tables. In 2013, the

Women's Caucus for Art The Women's Caucus for Art (WCA), founded in 1972, is a non-profit organization based in New York City, which supports women artists, art historians, students, educators, and museum professionals. The WCA holds exhibitions and conferences to promo ...

announced that Wilding will be a 2014 recipient of the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014, threewalls, a non-profit art gallery in Chicago, held the first retrospective of Wilding's work titled "Fearful Symmetries" that featured artwork spanning 40 years. In 2019, Wilding was featured in her first solo gallery exhibition, "Scriptorium Revisited"

at LA-based gallery Anat Ebg

The show was featured in Artforu

In 2021, Faith Wilding held a solo exhibition, "Fossils,

at Anat Ebgi Gallery in Los Angeles. The show was featured in Contemporary Art Review L

Publications

;Author * ''By Our Own Hands: The Woman Artist's Movement, Southern California, 1970-1976.'' Santa Monica: Double X, 1977. * "The Feminist Art Programs at Fresno and CalArts, 1970-75" in ''The Power of Feminist Art: The American Movement of the 1970s''. Eds. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard. New York: Abrams,1996, 32–47.
"Knowing Bodies - Feminist issues in health care, medicine, and biotechnology
" ''Neme.''

''M/E/A/N/I/N/G,'' #18 November 1995.
"Stolen Rhetoric: The Appropriation of Choice by ART Industries
" ''Neme.''
"Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?"
''Neme.'' 28 March 2006. ;Coauthor or editor * ''Domain Errors! Cyberfeminist Practices''. Eds. Maria Fernanadez, Faith Wilding, and Michelle M. Wright. Autonomedia, 2003. * Laura Meyer with Faith Wilding, "Collaboration and Conflict in the Fresno Feminist Art Program: An Experiment in Feminist Pedagogy". ''n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal'' vol. 26, July 2010 pp. 40–51. * subRosa, Faith Wilding. "Bodies Unlimited A decade of subRosa's art practice." ''n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal.'' July 2012. 28. pp. 16–25. * Faith Wilding, Critical Art Ensemble
"Notes on the Political Condition of Cyberfeminism."
''Art Journal.'' Summer 1998. 58: 4. pp. 46–59. * Faith Wilding, Mira Schor, Emma Amos, Susan Bee, Johanna Drucker, María Fernández, Amelia Jones, Shirley Kaneda, Helen Molesworth, Howardena Pindell, Collier Schor
"Contemporary Feminism: Art Practice, Theory, and Activism--An Intergenerational Perspective"
''Art Journal.'' Winter, 1999. 58: 4. pp. 8–29.

Visual work

Crocheted Environment

Nicknamed "Womb Room", this piece is a sculptural installation of a large crocheted, weblike structure. Faith Wilding contributed this one room, crocheted environment within the collaborative 1972

installation put together by the Feminist Art Program at the California Institute for the Arts. The piece was also displayed in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, as well as the Bronx Museum, New York, under “Division of Labor: Women’s Work in Contemporary Art.”

Wall of Wounds

Wall of Wounds is an installation of 100 Rorschach prints. Each 6” by 6” print is intended to comment on the social culture by proclaiming one's pre-categorized “wound.” Each print is signed and titled based on the nature of the wound: for example, “political wound,” “sexual wound,” or “phallic wound.”

Battle Dresses

Battle Dresses are a series of paintings entitled “Raped Dress,” “Suppurating Dress,” and “Pregnant Dress.” The series is dedicated to the women of the former Yugoslavia who were raped. The series was created in the period between 1995 and 1997. The entire installation measures 75” by 25” and is done on

Vellum Vellum is prepared animal skin or membrane, typically used as writing material. It is often distinguished from parchment, either by being made from calfskin (rather than the skin of other animals), or simply by being of a higher quality. Vellu ...

using ink and watercolor medium.

War Subjects

War Subjects is composed of 75” by 50” ink and watercolor drawings, which are “the recombined war body of melancholic historical fragments.”

Recombinants

Recombinants are a series of drawings, collages, and paintings that speak to the intersection of plant, human, animal and technological bodies. The piece contains visual and intellectual influences derivative of the Cyborg Manifesto.

Performance work

Duration performance

Wilding gave a performance/lecture on the politics of Information Technology and its relation to femininity as a consequence of the global reconstruction of telecommunication.

Waiting

In one of her most well-known works, Wilding performed Waiting in Womanhouse while sitting down and rocking back and forth. Waiting is a dramatic monologue that shows the passage of time and that throughout every stage - childhood, teenage years, motherhood, and old age - of her life, a woman is expected to wait: to be noticed, to be married, for her children and husband to come back home, etc. The burden of these societal expectations is framed in the performance through aesthetic choices: a rhythmical tone, the long skirt that Wilding was wearing, with her hands obediently kept on her knees. She is waiting to experience life and to feel accepted by herself and society.

Cock and Cunt

This was a role-playing exercise written by

and performed by Wilding and Janice Lester in Womanhouse. This is an interaction between a husband (HE), played by Wilding, and a wife (SHE), played by Lester. Both are wearing comically exaggerated genitalia. It starts in the living room with an argument over dishes and ends in the bedroom where the SHE is murdered by the HE. This play highlights the prevalence and danger of gender roles.

Invitation To A Burning

A mummy-like form filled with plants was burned at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles, California. Individuals participated by filling the burned form with seeds; the seeds sprouted over the course of the three-week installation.