SUSAN HILLER, TEN MONTHS 1977-79
10 b/w composite photographs, 10 texts, arranged sequentially; overall size 203 x 518 cm/80 in.x 204 in.
“Ten Months from 1977–79 is a key work in Hiller’s body of work. It consists of ten blocks, each with image and text presented in the form of a step from left to right, top to bottom. Each framed image contains a grid of 28 small photographs, which represent a one-month document of the artist’s growing belly during pregnancy. A box for each day, a “block” for each month. The texts that accompany the pictures are extracts from the artist’s journal. The sharp, aphoristic reflections about a woman’s position in society contradict the romanticized image of the body as a landscape and Hiller takes on a double role as both subject and object. In the seventh month, she describes her conflict between the need to speak and the difficulty of using words on her own terms:
“She speaks (as a woman) about everything but they wish her to speak only of women’s things. They want her to speak about things only if she does not speak ‘as a woman’, only if she agrees in advance to play the artist’s role as a neutral (genderless) viewer.
She does not speak (as a woman) about anything, even if they want her to do so. There is nothing she can speak about ‘as a woman’. As a woman she cannot speak.” - Moderna Museet