WEBVTT

00:00:09.495 --> 00:00:10.495
[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC]

00:00:19.990 --> 00:00:22.602
Drawing for me is a sort of meditation.

00:00:23.289 --> 00:00:25.758
I think everything begins and ends with the drawing.

00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:30.760
Whenever I do a project, I draw it out.

00:00:31.926 --> 00:00:34.160
So, it's kind of a basic language,

00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:36.661
and then I do some things in between.

00:00:39.085 --> 00:00:41.231
It's all about collaging.

00:00:45.081 --> 00:00:48.020
A lot of what I do as being an artist

00:00:48.020 --> 00:00:51.135
is creating a voice for myself

00:00:51.990 --> 00:00:55.214
because I didn't have one for so long.

00:00:59.594 --> 00:01:02.527
In 1965, I got pregnant.

00:01:04.095 --> 00:01:06.841
In the fifth month of my pregnancy,

00:01:06.841 --> 00:01:08.930
I was having trouble breathing

00:01:08.930 --> 00:01:12.140
and came down with a heart condition
called cardiomyopathy.

00:01:12.788 --> 00:01:14.741
I went into heart failure.

00:01:15.700 --> 00:01:18.990
I was under an oxygen tent 
during that pregnancy,

00:01:18.990 --> 00:01:20.228
in a hospital.

00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:23.380
I was unable to walk

00:01:23.380 --> 00:01:26.087
or to do anything for many, many months.

00:01:28.563 --> 00:01:33.109
When you are experiencing 
the threat of death,

00:01:33.109 --> 00:01:35.507
you become so aware of time.

00:01:36.220 --> 00:01:38.549
That's really a gift,

00:01:38.549 --> 00:01:41.411
to become so sick early in my life.

00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.460
It made you value the time you had

00:01:44.460 --> 00:01:47.345
and the fact that you
can't really waste time.

00:01:54.611 --> 00:01:58.990
Because so much of my illness
depended on breathing,

00:01:58.990 --> 00:02:02.240
I added the sound as it was getting better

00:02:02.240 --> 00:02:04.477
to a couple of my wax sculptures.

00:02:04.477 --> 00:02:06.720
[PLAYBACK OF RECORDED BREATHING SOUNDS]

00:02:06.720 --> 00:02:09.100
[VOICE FROM CASSETTE PLAYER]
--Oh, there you are.

00:02:09.435 --> 00:02:11.702
--I've been waiting for you all day.

00:02:12.830 --> 00:02:15.729
--I'm so glad that you've come to see me.

00:02:16.492 --> 00:02:18.292
--What's your name?

00:02:19.990 --> 00:02:22.090
I took a night class at UCLA

00:02:22.090 --> 00:02:24.621
on how you cast wax.

00:02:25.567 --> 00:02:29.860
Since I didn't have anybody else around,
I cast my face

00:02:30.962 --> 00:02:33.876
and made the wax cast from myself.

00:02:34.823 --> 00:02:37.774
When you're so isolated, you hear more.

00:02:37.774 --> 00:02:40.874
[RECORDED BREATHING SOUNDS]

00:02:41.390 --> 00:02:45.733
After my breath itself, I added 
interaction and dialogue.

00:02:46.420 --> 00:02:48.570
To me, it was sort of like a drawing.

00:02:48.570 --> 00:02:51.500
It was sound that extended into space.

00:02:51.500 --> 00:02:54.028
So that became part of the work.

00:02:59.499 --> 00:03:00.590
In the seventies,

00:03:00.590 --> 00:03:05.480
women artists were just becoming aware of
how they were made invisible.

00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:10.564
The early challenges were getting somebody
to show my work,

00:03:10.564 --> 00:03:12.914
and nobody would.

00:03:13.394 --> 00:03:15.150
Eventually,

00:03:15.150 --> 00:03:19.190
the University of California at Berkeley 
invited three women to have exhibitions

00:03:19.190 --> 00:03:20.510
and I was one of them.

00:03:20.510 --> 00:03:22.970
But they wanted to show only my drawings.

00:03:24.187 --> 00:03:26.290
I think they thought 
that drawings were safe

00:03:26.290 --> 00:03:28.960
and good draftsmanship and all of that.

00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:30.080
But along with that,

00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:33.864
I put in a couple of my wax sculptures
that talked.

00:03:34.810 --> 00:03:36.201
Within two days,

00:03:36.201 --> 00:03:38.017
the museum closed the show.

00:03:39.185 --> 00:03:41.120
They said, "Media isn't art."

00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:42.750
"Sound isn't art."

00:03:42.750 --> 00:03:46.084
And they completely closed
the exhibition down.

00:03:46.991 --> 00:03:51.240
Being rejected and being made invisible by
the museum system

00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:54.000
was really the best thing
that happened to me.

00:03:55.160 --> 00:03:58.704
The cultural experience of
having your voice suppressed

00:03:58.704 --> 00:04:01.168
has made speech, and talking,

00:04:01.168 --> 00:04:03.000
and having a voice,

00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:04.803
really important in what I do.