about in response (mounted)
Marcel Duchamp’s, Étant Donnés
1. La chute d’eau, 2. Le gaz d’éclairage (Given: 1. The Waterfall,
2. The Illuminating Gas), 1946-66
pictured through the peepholes photographed by Sandrow (2018) and the locked door
about in response (mounted)
Hope Sandrow: Box, Floating, 1989, silver prints and wood, 48” x 16” x 4” Unique, Mecox Bay Watermill NY
Marcel Duchamp: Etant Donnés (exterior view) Medium: Mixed media assemblage: (exterior) wooden door, iron nails, bricks, and stucco; (interior) bricks, velvet, wood, parchment over an armature of lead, steel, brass, synthetic putties and adhesives, aluminum sheet, welded steel-wire screen, and wood; Peg-Board, hair, oil paint, plastic, steel binder clips, plastic clothespins, twigs, leaves, glass, plywood, brass piano hinge, nails, screws, cotton, collotype prints, acrylic varnish, chalk, graphite, paper, cardboard, tape, pen ink, electric light fixtures, gas lamp (Bec Auer type), foam rubber, cork, electric motor, cookie tin, and linoleum.
Marcel Duchamp’s Étant Donnés is the art historical and personal reference for this series. Duchamp’s seminal work was installed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1969. The naked woman pictured in Duchamp’s surreal tableau assumed personal context months later in Sandrow’s own life, when behind a closed door Sandrow was similarly poised but on the examining table of an assailant (family doctor, William Most, Note 1).
In 1970, from the Museum’s windows, Sandrow enjoyed views of the inaugural Earth Week celebration and attended events in Fairmount Park (Note 2).
As a high school freshman, Sandrow joined the emerging environmental movement in which her maternal grandmother and father involved her (nominating Sandrow as Miss Cleaner Air Week). This is why from an early age, the assault on Sandrow’s body became linked to that of earth, air, and water.
Similarly, at the time of Sandrow’s mounted response (exhibited in a solo show at Gracie Mansion Gallery in 1989 and Grey Art Gallery in 1991), secrecy enshrouded violence against women (Note 3). No legislative protections were put in place, including discrimination of gender, race, and age. Many of Sandrow’s colleagues and dear friends suffered multiple heartbreaking and fatal secondary illnesses caused by the Aids virus (Note 4). Free speech (Note 5) was under attack as was the National Endowment for the Arts.
The in-disposable garbage documented in her photographs was a result of the Reagan/Bush administration’s elimination of federal regulations. The EPA's budget and oversight were dramatically reduced to promote '“economic” activity, and, Reagan’s refusal to renew The Clean Air Act by appointing known anti-environmentalists to key positions halting the protection oversights including that of toxic compounds. An example is those used by Bark Frameworks in framing Sandrow’s new series Cycles exhibited (1988) at Gracie Mansion Gallery and other venues: Bark’s “secret” formula” bleached portions of the white framed silver prints, to literally, disappear (Note 6) while on view. A loss that precipitated In Response (mounted).
Note 1: “He was active until he died,” said his wife Winifred. “He loved his patients… they were his friends.”
Note 2: Earth Week, April 16-22, originated in Philadelphia in 1970. “The first Earth Day indeed increased environmental awareness in America, and, in July 1970, the Environmental Protection Agency was established by special executive order to regulate and enforce national pollution legislation. Earth Day also led to the passage of the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts.“
Note 3: experienced by one in four American women; and most of those seeking safety with their children in the NYC Catherine Street Family Shelter where Sandrow conducted art workshops. At the time, shelter residents were labeled “welfare queens” by the Reagan/Bush Administration.
Note 4: The Reagan/Bush Administrations stated that AIDS was the punishment for a lifestyle they claimed was a choice not sanctioned by their religious faith. Sandrow is a member of Visual Aids.
Note 5: Sandrow, as a member of The Coalition for Freedom of Expression.
Note 6: On July 3, 1990, Bark Frameworks refunded framing expenses, admitting their responsibility.