Sisters of Survival records, 1954-2015, undated

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Summary

Title:
Sisters of Survival records
Dates:
1954-2015, undated
Creators:
Sisters of Survival, Gaulke, Cheri, Allyn, Jerri, 1952-, Gauldin, Anne, and Martinez, Daniel J.
Abstract:
Sisters of Survival (S.O.S.) was an anti-nuclear performance group founded in 1981 by Cheri Gaulke, Jerri Allyn, Nancy Angelo, Anne Gauldin, and Sue Maberry. The archive consists primarily of project files documenting performances, exhibitions, and publications from Sisters of Survival's main period of activity from 1982 to 1985 and some later projects, and includes photographic materials, planning documents, ephemera, digital files, audiovisual materials, and exhibition materials. The archive also contains press clippings and promotional images, administrative files, and a small amount of materials by other anti-nuclear artists and activists.
Extent:
44.65 Linear Feet (56 boxes; 3 boxed-rolls; 2 flatfiles. Computer media: 9.01 GB [551 files])
Language:
Collection material is in English.
Preferred citation:

Sisters of Survival records, 1954-2015, undated, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2017.M.47.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2017m47

Background

Scope and content:

The archive consists primarily of project files documenting Sisters of Survival performances, exhibitions, and publications from the group's main period of activity from 1982 to 1985, as well as some materials related to later projects. Most project files include photographic materials such as color slides and color or black-and-white negatives and prints, planning documents, and fliers and other ephemera. Some project files also contain audiovisual materials, born digital materials, and items used in exhibitions.

In addition to project files, the archive includes press clippings, administrative files, correspondence, and a small number of documents related to projects by group members that predate the formation of Sisters of Survival. Finally, the archive contains color slides, fliers, and publications produced by other anti-nuclear artists and activists, especially for Target: L.A.

The bulk of the collection was assembled by Cheri Gaulke, but it also contains files contributed by Jerri Allyn and Anne Gauldin.

Biographical / historical:

Sisters of Survival was an anti-nuclear performance group founded in 1981 by Cheri Gaulke, Jerri Allyn, Nancy Angelo, Anne Gauldin, and Sue Maberry. The group was one of the last collectives to emerge from the Woman's Building, a non-profit arts and education center which operated in Los Angeles between 1973 and 1991. Sisters of Survival members were also members of other performance art groups founded at the Woman's Building: Allyn and Gauldin were members of The Waitresses, while Gaulke and Angelo were members of Feminist Art Workers. To symbolize their sisterhood, Sisters of Survival wore colorful adaptations of religious habits during their performances. They also incorporated semaphore flags as accessories in a nod to their acronym, S.O.S. During their main period of activity from 1981 to 1985, Angelo, Gauldin, Gaulke, and Maberry were based in the Los Angeles area while Allyn coordinated activities in New York. Angelo left the group in 1982.

Sisters of Survival's activities included staging performances and exhibitions across the United States and Europe, collecting artwork from other anti-nuclear artists, and producing artists' books and other products such as postcards and buttons. Inspired by anti-nuclear demonstrations in Europe, they organized a three-part project, End of the Rainbow (1982-1983). In part one, they gathered artwork and produced performances and media events in Los Angeles and New York. One of these performances was a collaboration with Marguerite Elliot titled Shovel Defense (May 1982), in which the performers staged a dance of death in a mock graveyard made of shovels at government buildings and college campuses across Los Angeles in response to a claim by U.S. Undersecretary of Defense T.K. Jones that nuclear war was survivable if citizens had enough shovels to dig holes to hide themselves in. Another notable performance was Twist for Life Habit (June 1982), staged by Allyn with Political Art Documentation and Distribution (PAD/D), as part of the march in support of the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament in New York City. Sisters of Survival were also instrumental in organizing Target L.A. (August 1982) with L.A. Artists for Survival and led Fold a Crane for Peace workshops at that event and elsewhere.

In the second part of End of the Rainbow, they traveled across England, the Netherlands, Germany, and Malta with their performance, Public Action (May 1983), in which Sisters of Survival conveyed S.O.S. notices for the planet using semaphore flags, displayed other flags with messages collected from artists in North America, and dialogued with local activists. Their performance locations included nuclear missile sites, former military bases, war memorials, and city centers. Finally, part three of End of the Rainbow culminated in a traveling exhibition of work collected from over 300 artists across North America and Europe, as well as the documentation of S.O.S. activities. Other works by Sisters of Survival include At Home in the Nuclear Age? (1983-1985); the artists' book, Memento Mori (1984); and an installation for the Secular Attitudes exhibition at the Los Angeles Institute for Contemporary Art (LAICA) (1985), which also involved the display of a billboard on Wilshire Boulevard. More recent retrospective exhibitions include Making It Together: Women's Collaborative Art + Community (Bronx Museum of the Arts, 2008) and Doin' It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building (Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, 2011-12).

Sources consulted:

Allyn, Jerri, Anne Gauldin, Cheri Gaulke, and Sue Maberry. Sisters of Survival. Los Angeles: Otis College of Art and Design, 2011.

Tain, John. Acquisition approval form for "Sisters of Survival (active 1981-1985) Archive, 1981-85." May 16, 2016.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Cheri Gaulke, Sisters of Survival. Acquired in 2017.
Processing information:

Rachel Poutasse processed the bulk of the collection in 2020 and wrote the finding aid under the supervision of Sarah Mackenzie Wade and Kit Messick. Emmabeth Nanol completed the physical processing of the collection in 2021. Digital materials were processed by Laura Schroffel in 2019. Digital files require further processing before access copies can be made available. This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, ST-03-17-0007-17.

Arrangement:

The archive is arranged in four series:

Series I. Project files, 1954-2015, undated;

Series II. Press files, 1982-1990, undated;

Series III. Administrative files, 1978-1985, undated;

Series IV. Anti-nuclear art and activism by other groups, 1982-1983, undated.

Physical location:
Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Rachel Poutasse
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-03-05 11:12:28 -0800 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers.

Preferred citation:

Sisters of Survival records, 1954-2015, undated, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2017.M.47.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2017m47

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
Website