Suzanne Lacy, Leslie Labowitz, and various collaborators (1972-1979, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco)

Suzanne Lacy was one of the feminist cultural pioneers who, during the seventies, exposed the hidden themes of violence against women in mainstream culture. In the first of her large-scale performances to involve political lobbying, media campaigns, and grass roots organizing, Lacy worked with collaborator Leslie Labowitz on projects that are heralded as models of activism within the arts. These projects mobilized people from various fields to work with artists to develop comprehensive strategies alerting people to the incidence of violence and the connections between various forms of violence, such as domestic abuse, rape, and incest. With the publication of her artists book, Rape Is, and her role originating the topic of rape in Ablutions (both in 1972), Lacy launched an exploration, through art, of violence toward women and children that continues to this day.

In the early 90’s Lacy again returned to the subject of violence against women, this time with the multi-sited national installation series, Auto:On the Edge of Time. In this work she explored domestic abuse from the vantage point of abused women, prisoners, children, and men. Subsequently she worked with collaborators on projects on violence facing residents in Medellin, Colombia and Oakland, California.