Body Politic : Performance Artist Karen Finley Brings Her Controversial ‘Victims’ to L.A.

Karen Finley knows what it means to take heat. Stellar, unyielding, effulgent and controversial, her performance art has attracted more fire from conservative quarters during the past year than the proverbial lightning rod in a storm.

Finley, along with fellow performance artists Tim Miller, Holly Hughes and John Fleck, is suing the National Endowment for the Arts over grants that were recommended, then vetoed, last year. She brings her critically acclaimed solo, “We Keep Our Victims Ready,” to UCLA’s Wadsworth Theater Saturday and Sunday.

Broaching subjects as volatile as rape, alcoholism, censorship and the ongoing oppression of women, this is the piece that got Finley in so much political hot water--largely because of erroneous accounts by journalists who had never seen the work they were writing about.

“This is the one that was denied granting for political reasons--the famous ‘chocolate-smeared woman’ performance,” says Finley, referring to the derisive characterizations of her work put forth during the heat of the NEA imbroglio by political columnists Rowland Evans and Robert Novak.

This is also the solo that garnered Finley a 1990 Bessie Award--one of the most prestigious prizes for experimental dance and performance art--and that sold out two performances at Lincoln Center’s “Serious Fun!” festival.

Premiered at San Diego’s Sushi Performance Gallery in 1989--and toured to a variety of national and international cities since--”We Keep Our Victims Ready” is particularly ripe to have its Los Angeles premiere this weekend.

“I wanted to bring it to L.A. now because the lawsuit (against the NEA) has been filed in L.A. and two of the plaintiffs (Miller and Fleck) live in the area,” says Finley. “I’m bringing it here for educational and historical reasons--so the average person, people who are in the arts, journalists and politicians can see it for themselves.”

Paradoxically, several of the subjects Finley addresses in this tour de force that she wrote, directed and performs have taken on added significance since 1989. “When I first started doing it, I talked about censorship and violence toward women--before what had happened to me and to Anita Hill,” says Finley, whose unflinching work typically confronts the subjugation of women and others. “It rings true: our domestic oppressions are getting worse.”

The Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas squareoff, for instance, sits no more well with Finley than it does with many feminists. “I look at the Senate as a sculpture garden,” says Finley. “The famous artists--basically all men--are just like the senators.

“Their biggest problem in life is form--some piece of steel they have to balance or (decide whether to) paint blue or white. They don’t really have any problems, because they have the power. It’s just the same with all the political structures: It’s about men having the privilege of being able to abandon responsibility.”

As for the issue of sexual harassment--of which Finley claims to have been a victim--that too is widespread. “It’s an exception if you’re not (harassed)--at work, in school, on the sidewalk,” she says.

Ultimately, the Anita Hill case is just yet another outcropping of perennial prejudice, she insists. “They don’t believe the woman,” says Finley. “No matter how professional she is, no matter what school she’s gone to, when it comes down to it, she’s a lying slut.”

In contrast to the Thomas hearings, though, Finley does see a few signs for optimism. For one, the NEA earlier this week awarded $8,000 Solo Theater Artist Fellowships for the current year to Miller and Hughes.

“I’m glad they got their grants, but there’s still a climate of fear. Let’s hope (NEA chairman John) Frohnmayer comes to his senses and reverses his decision on the prior year’s grants and gets rid of the decency clause,” she said, referring to the NEA’s current anti-obscenity guidelines. Finley, like her colleague Fleck, did not apply for a current year fellowship. (She is, however, part of a project sponsored by The Kitchen in New York, which this year received an NEA Inter-Arts grant.)

Finley did not apply to the fellowship program for several reasons: “I have had problems at various institutions. Sometimes, places are audited when I appear, or the congressmen call up and spaces are afraid to put me on because of political consequences or because they’ll lose funding.

“Also, I’m protesting the decency language, which is vague and promotes homophobia and an ideology of only creating work that is relevant to the current Administration.”

Then, too, an application to the NEA could mean a lot of personal grief for Finley. “I did not want to go through what I went through last year--physically or psychologically,” she says. “Financially too, it costs me more than it would be worth. I suffered a year of not producing new work. That hurts my soul, my vision, my life’s purpose.”

Instead, Finley has focused on doing new work outside of the country. She recently completed an installation in Newcastle and she’s also had a number of shows of her paintings and drawings. Her book “Shock Treatment” was published in November, 1990.

Finley has also written a play called “Lamb of God Hotel” that sketches an array of society’s abused victims. There’s a man who, upon discovering he’s HIV positive, decides to take his life publicly. There’s a woman who has been made pregnant by her father, but who can’t get an abortion because the law requires the consent of the fetus’ father. And there’s an older woman who can’t find any place to take refuge--a character whose plight Finley says comments on the persistent attitude that “a woman after child-bearing is worthless.”

“It’s taking personal psychological elements and seeing the translation of that on the political level,” says Finley of the play’s throughline. “I deal with people who are dealing with personal turmoil, who have to continue to suffer because of political situations.”

Another Finley project in the works is a national poster campaign, produced for Artspace in San Francisco, which will feature portraits of various famous women--including Eve, the Virgin Mary, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I and others--with captions proclaiming them to be pro-choice.

“I’m really tired of men like the Pope or Bush proclaiming what’s supposed to be (allowed) for women,” says Finley of her inspiration for the posters. “It’s always men who are in the position of God. A woman’s life just isn’t worth much.”