From her seminal work of feminist art, “The Dinner Party”(1979) to the time she undermined the phallic-nature of architecture by creating a grand womb-like space for Dior’s SS20 couture show in Paris, Judy Chicago is known for challenging what she describes as the “mass terrorism” of toxic masculinity. What began for Chicago as a quest for gender equality has come to also embrace what she perceives as all victims of the tyranny of patriarchal control, including the planet itself. “My body of art is a part of a long historic struggle for justice,” the American artist tells Dazed. “That now includes climate justice. If I have been able to make a contribution to this struggle, I will have achieved my lifetime goals.”
In 1960s California, attending Richard Serra’s exhibition at the Pasadena Museum, Chicago was horrified by “Sawing” – a now-notorious artwork involving a configuration of cut-down endangered redwood trees in the centre of the gallery. She was appalled by Serra’s machismo and sense of entitlement to the natural world, which seemed to characterise so much of the art being championed at the time. In response, Chicago began a series called Atmospheres with the intention of making art that worked in harmony with the environment rather than damaging or claiming dominion over it.