Art Funded by you

Fingernails on a blackboard: Bella

Sharon Hayes, 2014

Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Leighton, Berlin.

Sharon Hayes is an American artist who came to prominence in the early 1990s.

She works primarily in video, installation and performance to explore issues such as queer theory, sexual politics and activism.

In the film Fingernails on a blackboard: Bella, Hayes addresses class and gender imbalance through the transcript of a meeting between the New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug and her vocal coach. The text reveals the pair working to neutralise Abzug’s regional accent and soften her tone ahead of the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston, Texas.

This work, acquired alongside a letterpress print called May 1st, now joins the collection of GoMA, Glasgow’s main gallery of contemporary art.

More information

Title of artwork, date

Fingernails on a blackboard: Bella, 2014

Date supported

2019

Medium and material

Video, 16mins (silent)

Dimensions

16 minutes in duration; the audio track is silent

Grant

11234

Total cost

11936

Content note: This object record is part of our archive and has not been updated since it was first published. It may contain inaccurate information or outdated language. Please get in touch if you think this record should be amended.

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