In 2022, The Carolee Schneemann Foundation was awarded a Hauser & Wirth Institute grant to conduct oral histories with nine artists and friends who spoke about their relationships to and collaborations with Carolee Schneemann. The conversations were led by three interviewers whose relationship to Schneemann and her legacy took multiple paths: curators, publishers, researchers, neighbors, and colleagues. The result is a set of stories that are intimate, candid, rigorous, and engaging.
Brief audio excerpts and full transcripts of the interviews are available on our website. Topics covered include: Schneemann’s early life with composer James Tenney in the 1950s and 1960s; her formative intellectual connection with filmmaker Stan Brakhage; her productive years in London with Anthony McCall; a firsthand account of her 1977 performance of Interior Scroll at the Telluride Film Festival; the production process of her seminal 1979 monograph More Than Meat Joy; and the artist’s trip to Tijuana to undergo alternative cancer therapy at the Gerson Institute, as well as numerous anecdotes that attest to Schneemann’s humor, magic, and her love of cats.
The Carolee Schneemann Foundation thanks Hauser & Wirth Institute, Leez Alkhoury, Lotte Johnson, Alexis-Rai Mangett, Stephanie Tinsley, Erin Zona, and the interview subjects for their generosity in making these stories available.
