A New Reality: Black-and-White Photography in Contemporary Art, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1 September - 18 November 2007
Catalogue Essay
In So Help Me Hannah, her 1978 performance at the PS1 Institute for Art and Urban Resources, New York’s new contemporary art space, Hannah Wilke walked the abandoned school naked while wearing high heels and carrying a gun. Her husband Donald Goddard photographed her movements throughout the building. As seen in the present lot, Wilke’s vulnerability, as suggested by her nudity and her hidden position beneath the stairwell, is undermined by the presence of the gun in her hand and her defiant gaze. Using her body as a conceptual canvas, Wilke’s work bluntly confronts themes of sexuality, desire, gender identity, power and self-representation.
So Help Me Hannah, Performalist Self-Portrait with Donald Goddard
1978 Gelatin silver print. 12 7/8 x 8 1/2 in. (32.7 x 21.6 cm) Signed, titled, dated, copyright notation and annotated 'all rights reserved' in ink on the verso.
