ART + ACTIVISM + MEDIA INTERVENTIONS
Fighting Violence Against Women
FEATURED PERFORMANCE
In Mourning and In Rage
“In Mourning and In Rage” – media performance, Labowitz & Lacy December, 1977, Los Angeles City Hall Steps. Photo by Maria Karras.
From October 1977 to February 1978, Los Angeles women waited in fear and suspense as each new victim of “The Hillside Strangler” was broadcast on TV and print news. By December there were 10 women, strangled and raped throughout the city. "Dumped on Hillsides" was the common disposal that characterized each crime and hence was branded “Hillside Strangler” by the media. Sensationalizing these victims’ lives and images of their nude bodies on hilllsides contributed to a growing climate of fear and powerlessness. In Mourning and In Rage was a media performance we staged during the murders that was both a memorial and critique of the media coverage that further exploited them.
“We are here because we want you to know that we know that these ten women are not isolated cases of random, unexplainable violence. That this violence is not different, except in degree and detail, from all of the daily real-life reports which reach the news media, from those fictionalized mutilations shown by our entertainment industries, and from the countless unreported cases of brutalization of our relatives, friends and loved ones who are women.”
Statement made to national TV audience during In Mourning and In Rage
