Blind Beggar Woman
Street performance • 1979
Clothed in rags and tiny bags of dust, her eyes bandaged, she begged for people's stories, her blindness compelling a remarkable intimacy in over one hundred strangers.
—Suzanne Lacy in Leaving Art: Writings on Performance, Politics, and Publics
Excerpt from interview with Asia Art Archive
I asked the question: who are the female Homers, the female storytellers, who were the containers of history and memory? On the street, I begged for stories from people’s lives, while my eyes were covered with these very obvious patches. I practiced with a friend of mine who was blind. People started saying that I was the multi-breasted female goddess and stuff like that, but that was not the origin of this piece. May Stevens got it right—she was the first to recognize that the work was also a mutilation image. Some saw her as the multi-breasted powerful Goddess... I saw her as everywoman, my grandmother, mother, sister.
Performances
Glyptotek Museum • Copenhagen, Denmark | 1980
Franklin Furnace • NYC | 1980
a street event for CAA/WCA, New Orleans, LA | 1980
a street event, Wall Street • NYC | 1979
a street event, 80 Langton Street • San Francisco, CA | 1979
a street event, in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral • NYC | 1979