Suzanne Lacy (Las Vegas, 1978)

This installation in the University gallery was described in Artweek ____ by critic Jeff Kelley, “Constructed within the university gallery was a small white room with a three-foot high entrance. A haunting metaphor for the desert, the floor was covered with sand and rocks, and women were encouraged to write their experiences with rape and violence on the interior walls prior to the final installation.

The actual performance was one of the most powerful images I have ever seen in an art context. One entered the room, encountering against the rear wall three lamb carcasses suspended as if dancing, embellished with pink and white Las Vegas showgirls plumage and beads draped over their fresh meat. Like horrible puppets the carcasses were at once dancing and hanging by necks wrenched in the moment just before death. Lacy sat above the entrance, naked, almost spiritual in presence, the antithesis of Las Vegas meat. She placed necklaces around the necks of viewers as they leaned over to enter, symbolically linking them with the adorned lamb carcasses. A recorder hissed the sound of hot desert wind. The walls echoed the words of raped women. I cannot imagine a more suitable esthetic form for the expression of the dehumanization of women than Lacy’s piece. In the end participants gathered around a circle of candles outside the small room, to share opinions, pain, and consciousness. The ritual was then complete.”