Hosted in person by Printed Matter (231 11th Ave, NYC) and streamed online via the Franklin Furnace LOFT, the event marks the U.S.-American launch of An Anarchitectural Body of Work: Suzanne Harris and the Downtown New York Artists Community of the 1970s by Friederike Schaefer, the first book published about the life and work of this groundbreaking yet historically overlooked artist.
A Conversation with Martha Wilson (Artist, Founding Director Emerita, Franklin Furnace), Friederike Schaefer (PhD, Freie Universität Berlin), and Glenda F. Hydler (artist); moderated by Jessamyn Fiore (Co-Director, Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark)
This conversation will illuminate the essential contribution of artist, dancer, and educator Suzanne Harris (1942 – 1979) to the downtown artists community in the 1970s, as she played a pivotal role in 112 Greene Street, FOOD Restaurant, The Natural History of the American Dancer and the group Anarchitecture which included Gordon Matta-Clark, Tina Girouard, and Laurie Anderson among others. Both an active member of the emerging SoHo art scene and a world traveler, Harris exhibited in the U.S. and Europe, and collaborated and performed with many artists and choreographers including Joan Jonas, Richard Serra, Keith Sonnier, Trisha Brown, Carmen Beuchat, and Steve Paxton. By merging her work as both a dancer and sculptor in her artistic practice, she contributed to the developing field of installation art. Her site-specific installation LOCUS/UP↓〉ONE (1976) on the Battery Park City Landfill became a precursor for the Art on the Beach series by Creative Time.
Due to its ephemeral nature, the preservation of her body of—and at—work has only been made possible through a joint effort of her friends, fellow artists, and researchers over a span of 45 years. In addition to the publication, archival material of the estate of Suzanne Harris is now accessible at the New York University Fales Library and Special Collections, and, as part of The Franklin Furnace Artists’ Books Collection, digitally at Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc.
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