Marilyn Minter Tweets Call to Action ‘Our Cunt-ry Needs You!’
Marilyn Minter, My Cunt-ry 'Tis of Thee (2018) (still). Video. Courtesy the artist and Simon Lee Gallery.
Marilyn Minter shared stills from her video My Cunt-ry ‘Tis of Thee (2018) today in a tweet she hash-tagged #protectabortionaccess.
The images show the sentence ‘Our Cunt-ry Needs You!’ and the phrase ‘No Cunt-ry for Old Men’ with a cross through it, both written in condensation on glass.
Minter posted the images in response to a leaked United States Supreme Court decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional right to abortion in 1973, almost 50 years ago.
In 2016, Minter spoke to Ocula Magazine about so-called TRAP [Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers] laws that were limiting abortion rights all over the country.
‘I remember when abortion was illegal, and I knew people who got illegal unsafe abortions,’ she said. ‘I got my birth control at Planned Parenthood, and I got my abortion there. It was horrifying to me that we were having to have this argument again. I thought it was solved. I thought to myself, “I’m in my sixties, and we’re having to do this again?!” ’
Prior to the conversation, Minter had organised an auction with artists Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons, Richard Prince, Richard Serra, and Brice Marden that raised almost US $4 million for Planned Parenthood. She also teamed up with Miley Cyrus and Marc Jacobs on a T-shirt that brought in another $100,000.
Minter’s support for women’s right to choose has often been met with invective online.
‘They call me an ugly old hag, and [say] that I should drink bleach,’ she said. ‘They say I’m killing babies and selling their parts ... It really is hysterical!’
Our Cuntry Tis of Thee debuted at Regen Projects, Los Angeles, and was shown at Simon Lee Gallery, London, in 2019.
Minter co-organsied the exhibition Abortion is Normal, which began at Project for Empty Space in 2019 and built into exhibitions at Galerie Eva Presenhuber and Arsenal Contemporary Art in 2020.
Fifty artists took part in the show, including Dominique Duroseau, Christen Clifford, Miguel Luciano, Shirin Neshat, Wangechi Mutu, Chloe Wise, Nan Goldin, and Catherine Opie.
Among the other artworks being circulated online in response to the Supreme Court’s decision is Barbara Kruger‘s Untitled (Your Body Is a Battle Ground) (1989). —[O]
Main image: Marilyn Minter, My Cunt-ry 'Tis of Thee (2018) (still). Video. Courtesy the artist and Simon Lee Gallery.
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