The Body as Archive: Hannah Wilke and Embodied Memory
Pulitzer Arts Foundation. 2022. Hannah Wilke: Retrospective | Pulitzer Arts Foundation. YouTube video, 6:57. June 2, 2022.
Hannah Wilke with Ponder-r-rosa 4, 1975 Photograph © 2021 Scharlatt Family, Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, Los Angeles / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Hannah Wilke, Gestures (stills), 1974–1976. Twelve gelatin silver prints, each 12.7 × 17.8 cm. Based on the video performance Gestures (1974, 35:30 min, black and white, sound). © Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon and Andrew Scharlatt, The Hannah Wilke Collection & Archive, L.A. / VBK, Vienna 2012.
Hannah Wilke’s radical use of her own body to confront themes of feminism, illness, and vulnerability offers a powerful precedent for working with the body as both medium and message. Watching this retrospective reinforced how her performances, sculptures, and photographs turn the body into a politicized, expressive site of lived experience.
In my tattoo practice, I similarly work with the human body not only as canvas, but as a collaborator. The exchange between myself and the person receiving a tattoo is deeply personal. It involves shared vulnerability, memory, and meaning. Wilke’s work encourages me to lean further into this space—not just as a technician, but as an artist who facilitates emotional inscription.
She also challenges me to be mindful of the ethics of working with the body—how power, gender, care, and trauma manifest in material decisions. Her legacy inspires me to treat every body as an archive of stories that deserve empathy and artistic sensitivity.
#embodiment #feminism #memory #vulnerability #care #bodyasmedium