Feminism—Art—Politics. What is their connection? In
theory? In reality?

Once there was a women’s art center that was very
excited about an “Art as Work” seminar | proposed. They
wanted a short personal resumé to follow the course de-
scription in the catalogue—to let students know who | was,
where | was coming from: Harmony Hammond is a lesbian
feminist artist who has exhibited at Gallery X and Gallery Z
and taught at R. University and C. University. They wanted
my labels and then did not like them. No seminar. Really, |
was coming on too strong. Couldn’t | use a different word?
Or just not say it at all? Would | be teaching art or politics?
They were an “Art” center. They were afraid, they said,
afraid | would jeopardize. . . .

Jeopardize what? Their art? Their teaching? Their stu-
dents? Their bodies? Their minds? Their sexuality? Their
politics? Their power? Their authority? Their thinking? They
did not know . . . they were just afraid.

| did not fit their concept of a feminist and therefore |
was dangerous.

Labels. The meaninglessness of labels. The power of
labels. The confining. What does it mean to be a lesbian,
radical feminist, activist, mother, artist? | am all of these
individually and combined. It means | am political. [t
means | want to change existing power relationships. A list
of experiences. The power of labels is the power of ideas
and action combined.

The political mother, the political artist, the political
feminist, and the political lesbian refuse to be second-
class. They take action by “doing.” They refuse to be
isolated into separatist stances, and they become a total
whole. They add up to what Charlotte Bunch has called a
“non-aligned feminism” —not automatically attached to
one line of feminism (socialist/left vs. reformist vs. cultural/
spiritual) but rather evaluating each individual issue and
situation from an independent feminist perspective.

Lesbian. Radical feminist. Activist. Mother. Artist.

The common denominator is woman. Women are op-
pressed as a class. This oppression underlies the patriarchal
institutions of capitalism, imperialism, racism, and hetero-
sexism. To end all forms of oppression we must first end the
oppression of all women regardless of sexuality or eco-
nomic class, racial or cultural background.

Lesbian. Radical feminist. Activist. Mother. Artist.

Together they form my feminism. Feminism is my poli-
tics. My art both is formed by and is a statement of my
feminism. H.H.

While I'd always worked in social programs, | never
considered myself a political person. Political groups so
often revealed confused priorities that | inevitably ended
up by questioning my own. But feminism was different—so
much was personally at stake. If | questioned my commit-
ment (how can | be amused by this or not outraged by
that), | soon found | was not amused and | was outraged by
things | might once have considered innocuous or simply
unalterable. Feminism had become a persistent way of living
and thinking and the most important awareness of my life.

Today | trust the impulses calling out for radical change
because they're rooted in a lifetime of self-analysis contin-
uously and consistently validated by other women. Frustra-
tion, it seems, is being resolved in conviction and action
and the awareness of this power has been startling to me.
Needless to say, art which strengthens that awareness is
exhilarating.

| am a medievalist. | was attracted tc the field by the
escapist fantasies of folklore and romance. But | now feel
that all art—whether ancient or modern—can be seen and
judged within a feminist context. A.L

From the First-Issue Collective

The editorial collective of this first issue of
Heresies shares not a political line but a com-
mitment to the development of coherent femi-
nist theory in the context of practical work. The
time for reformulating old positions or merely
attacking sexism is past. Now we must take on
the most problematic aspects of feminist theory,
esthetic theory and political theory. We are not
only analyzing our own oppression in order to
put an end to it, but also exploring concrete
ways of transforming society into one that is
socially just and culturally free.

The role of the arts and the artist in the politi-
cal process is our specific arena. By confronting
the very real differences in our own attitudes
towards art and politics, which reflect those in
the wider feminist community, we have un-
covered networks connecting a broad range of
forms and ideologies. As material for the first
issue came in to us, we found that no hard line
could be drawn between texts and visual ma-
terial. There are, therefore, few “illustrations”
here, but independent statements expressed
visually, verbally, or in combination, sharing

When pressed by the people who ask “What do you do?”
attimes | call myself an artist and then no one knows what
to expect. The term is so vague and useless that it does not
begin to identify a point of view. The fact that art work
keeps the bourgeoisie in style, and the bourgeoisie keeps
all the art, suggests that most artists don’t bother with
politics and ideology, instead they are united by a life-
style: generally you must privatize your work, hang your
head to the left late at night in the bars, and think deeply
about how your work will be understood in the melancholic
future; be concerned about your isolation from the com-
munity.

It is difficult not to become a cynic. Opportunism
knocks. Even the women’s movement is another stepping
stone towards critical recognition. Most people are more
concerned with the objects we are producing than the
world into which we place our work. | make abstract paint-
ings and super-8 films—but not for a living. | work as an
editor for a left news magazine called Seven Days. This is
where | learned the business of developing an audience
and disseminating information. Heresies is an attempt to
politicize the art world; a chance to attack the history of
our work as opposed to “documenting” it.

| have been a feminist it seems ever since | noticed | was
living with great difficulty; it came out during the 1960s—
but that's a long story. In the 1970s, feminism has tenden-
cies which serve merely to push liberal institutions to their
farthest extremes. This has left many women caught in a
dubious struggle; a recognition of strength and an inability
to act. The feminist movement should not work towards
gaining economic power, but towards developing a coher-
ent ideology if we are to participate in change and work
towards socialism. (You knew I’d say that.) The point is that
an understanding of feminism without an analysis of class
is like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Capitalism is so efficient that it can sustain its own alter-
natives; likewise the art world—one more radical magazine.

E.H.

I ———