Hannah O’Shea
Having trained at Goldsmiths College as a sculptor in the 1960s, O’Shea went on to make performance art and develop a film-based practice in the 70s. She was also part of the Women Artists Collective working with artists such as Rose Finn-Kelcey. In 1976/7 she made the durational performance A Litany for Women Artists where she chanted the names of women artists in an action to reclaim them for history. Her film A Visual Time-Span is a collage of her own performances mixed with women’s and gay rights demonstrations.
Hannah O’Shea
Performance documentation / Examples of works
A Visual Time Span, 1974-76
Stills available at The British Artists Film and Video Study Collection
View Online
A Litany for Women Artists, 1976/7
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Once Upon a Marian Theme, 1970s
Publications
BATTISTA, Kathy (2013) Re-negotiating the Body: Feminist Art in 1970s London, London: I. B. Tauris
Study Room Ref: P2121
ELWES, Catherine (1997) ‘The Pursuit of the Personal in British Video Art’ in DEEPWELL, Katy (ed.) n.paradoxa online, Issue 5, pp 22-38
Study Room Ref: A0664
View Online
Hannah O’Shea, A Litany for Women Artists, (1977). Performed at Tate Britain, The Hayward Gallery, Acme Gallery, The Charlottenberg Palace, Berlin, MOMA, Frankfurt; The Gemeenta Museum, The Hague; Franklin Furnace, NY. Copyright: Hannah O’ Shea.
