caption website birth_place birth_date article_title name occupation
martha wilson in 2011 http://www.marthawilson.com/ philadelphia 1947 martha wilson
 martha wilson performance artist
martha wilson

martha wilson -lrb- born 1947 in philadelphia , pennsylvania -rrb- is an american feminist performance artist and the founding director of franklin furnace art organization .
over the past four decades she has developed and `` created innovative photographic and video works that explore her female subjectivity through role-playing , costume transformation , and ` invasions ' of other peoples personas '' .
she is a recipient of two national endowment for the arts fellowships , a new york foundation for the arts fellowship , and an obie award and a bessie award for commitment to artists ' freedom of expression .
she is represented by p • p • o • w gallery in new york city .
in the early 1970s while studying in halifax in nova scotia , she began to make videos and photo/text-based performances .
when she moved to new york city in 1974 she continued to develop and explore her photo/text and video performances .
from this and other works during her career she gained attention within the us for her provocative characters , costumes , works and performances .
in 1976 she founded and became director of the franklin furnace archive , which is an artist-run space that focuses on the exploration and promotion of artists books , installation art , video and performance art .
due to their content of such works they challenge the established normality of performance , art work and books .
other aspects addressed through the publicizing of the archive are the roles artists play within visual arts organisations , and the expectations around what is acceptable in the art .
