Spiral Women: Locating Lesbian Activism in New Zealand Feminist Art, 1975-1992

Abstract

Spiral Women: Locating Lesbian Activism in New Zealand Feminist Art, 1975–1992 Judith Collard University of Otago The connection between art and activism is rarely discussed in New Zealand art historical writing.1 Yet acknowledging this link is essential for understanding the choices made, both aesthetic and iconographic, by lesbian feminist artists associated with the collective that produced the art magazine Spiral in the 1970s and 1980s. During the 1970s in New Zealand as elsewhere, the women's art movement emerged from within wider feminist politics that embraced the arts as well as social and political issues. The separation between artist and activist is an artificial one, as members of a woman's theater group were also likely to be involved in the Women's Refuge Movement, which provided shelter and support for [End Page 292] women escaping domestic violence. Just as artists were inspired by issues encountered in feminist publications and consciousness-raising, so too was the wider movement sustained by the broad transformation of cultural practices. These conjunctions saw the emergence of women's art, music, and literature as well as women's presses, bookshops, and other associated groups. A distinctively lesbian politics also emerged that informed yet clashed with this broader feminist movement. Many of those involved in Spiral participated in this wider environment of women's activism, which directly shaped their approaches to art. It is through recognition of this involvement, and the practices and critiques that emerged from such activist groups, that the nature of the projects undertaken and decisions made by members of Spiral can be best understood. In this article my particular focus is on the art and writings of the lesbian artists and writers who moved in and out of the Spiral circle, particularly Allie Eagle, Heather McPherson, Jane Zusters, and Sharon Alston. All four were involved, as participants or organizers, in the public forums for which the group was best known and also in the Spiral art and literary magazine, the Women's Gallery, and A Women's Picture Book. In addition, each had a commitment to feminist and lesbian activities and saw her art practice as contributing to this wider political community. I am interested in examining how the original Spiral collective and its journal evolved as much out of this activist background as from an interest in women's art. In the first section I explore how the group's interest in opening up artistic practice and exhibition to a variety of different women was also a direct result of this commitment to activism. While the art that resulted from this involvement was often overtly feminist, it did not necessarily reflect a distinctively lesbian perspective. For example, the works of Allie Eagle such as This Woman Died: I care reflected wider debates on abortion law reform that were occurring during its production. The desire for creating coalitions with Maori and other groups at times also conflicted with these artists' own lesbian feminist politics. In the second and third sections of this essay I explore this dilemma through discussions of two different artists, Jane Zusters and Sharon Alston. Jane Zusters articulated, both in her art and her writing, the difficulties of negotiating a path between a lesbian politics and the mainstream art world. The final section focuses on Sharon Alston's painting, My bloody hand, and the controversy it created around Maori and Pakeha (non-Maori) understandings of menstruation and the perceived need to assert a visible lesbian sexuality within A Women's Picture Book. The Emergence of Spiral The literature about Spiral is sparse. In part this is because there has been a focus on individual artists and their work rather than contextualization, [End Page 293] but this absence also highlights the tensions between the radical agenda of the feminist art movement and the art establishment. Christina Barton has drawn attention to this reluctance to address a feminist presence in art historical writing in her essay...