Linda Cunningham

Linda Cunningham, 'Urban Transformation', 2016, Bronze, Steel

2016

In 1972, the women’s movement was in full flower. Suzanne Benton had been an early activist, a founder and organizer of NOW Chapters, CT Feminists in the Arts, Women, Metamorphosis 1 (in New Haven, CT, the first women’s art festival in the USA). She'd already been creating metal sculpted masks and working with them in mask tale performances of Women of Myth and Heritage. Her inaugural performance of Sarah and Hagar n 1972 took place at Lincoln Center in NYC. Benton then became the artistic director and producer of an evening on Broadway, Four Chosen Women (performers included herself as mask tale performer, author Anais Nin, actress Vinie Burroughs and dancer Joan Stone). The evening took place at the Edison Theatre, November 22, 1972. While developing the evening on Broadway, Benton met renowned Swedish actress and Hollywood star, Viveca Lindfors. Viveca was then working on her solo performance, I AM A WOMAN, and was looking for a unique theatre set for the show. The happenstance that brought Viveca and Suzanne together. At that same time, recent travel to Macchu Picchu inspired her with the mountain’s great stones sitting on the edge of precipices. These vast stones led her to create welded steel Seated Sculpture Works. Viveca was intrigued by the concept and let her own imagination fly. Imagining a set of welded steel sculpture, she took the leap in commissioning Suzanne with complete faith in artist's ability to fulfill her mandate. Benton created groups of welded sculptures for two theater sets. Protection is one of three sculptures in first set created in 1973. Mother and Child, Pelvic Woman, Facing Each Other are three of five works from the 1974 second set. The first toured with her shows throughout the East Coast and into Toronto, Canada. The second set, created to nest together could travel as checked baggage for international and domestic airline travel. They flew to Denmark in 1980 for her performance at the UN sponsored 1980 Women’s International Conference, Copenhagen. In addition to creating the theatre sets, Benton mounted exhibitions of her masks and sculptures in the lobbies of theatres where she performed (NYC and Northampton). Continuing on with this theme, Becoming is her 1975 Seated Sculpture Work. The theatre sets were returned at the final end of its long run. These Seated Sculpture Works have often been featured in exhibitions, including both the 2003 and 2005 retrospectives. They are part of an oeuvre of 797 sculptures and masks. What attracted her to welded sculpture? This excerpt from her book, The Art of Welded Sculpture, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1975 speaks of its lure: "Early in my life, when I had decided to become an artist, I had had an inner vision of being able to hold the physical material of my art in such a way as to bring it into existence with my hands. In welding, I wear a mask, a heavy apron, and gloves. I heat the metal and make it bend so smoothly and gracefully; I cut the metal, rigid metal, into endless shapes; I join the pieces by causing them to flow together with the heat of the flame. Welding was a return to my adolescent vision. It was fulfillment. At that beginning time I felt that even if I went no further, this experience in itself gave me astounding satisfaction. It was as thrilling as the moment of birth. It was my birth." (Pelvic Woman and Protection are illustrated in the book): What began in 1965 became by 2017 an oeuvre of 797 sculptures and masks. The magic of the welding mask...

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