Maris Bustamante, Instrumento de trabajo / Para quitarle a Freud lo macho (part of the performance Caliente–Caliente), 1982, photo: Rubén Valencia
Maris Bustamante
Instrumento de trabajo / Para quitarle a Freud lo macho (part of the performance Caliente–Caliente)

Since her first happening in 1971 Maris Bustamante (*1949, Mexico) — a graduate from the Escuela Nacional de Pintura y Escultura La Esmeralda at Mexico City—began “a search for non-traditional supports” or what she called “non-objective art.” In 1977, with three male artists, she started a movement of “savage vanguard” called “No-Grupo” (No-Group). As they declared, “No-Group is a workshop of critique, of attitudes and positions.” With No-Grupo Bustamante created humored and caustic performances where gender was a major source material. In 1983, Bustamante and Mónica Mayer founded the first feminist art collective in Mexico, Polvo de Gallina Negra (Black Hen Powder).

For Instrumento de trabajo / Para quitarle a Freud lo macho (Work Instrument / To Get Rid of the Macho in Freud) from the performance Caliente-Caliente (Hot-Hot), Bustamante manufactured 300 masks made in her own image, replaced the nose of the mask with a penis, added a sign to it stating “work instrument” and distributed the masks to the audience as a response “to Sigmund Freud’s theory that a woman who wanted to engage in professional endeavours suffered from penis envy” (Bustamente).

Performance: Museo de Arte Moderno en la Ciudad de México

Courtesy Maris Bustamante

Document media
Photographs

Issue date
1982

Relations
Mónica Mayer (MAY 1)
Polvo de Gallina Negra (POL 1)


Tags
labour, laughter/humorous, masquerade, patriarchy