After over forty years of impactful contributions to feminist film and performance, Susan Kleckner is finally receiving the recognition she deserves. The exhibition titled Raw Material: The Art and Life of Susan Kleckner is currently on display at Haverford College's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery and will run until April 5, 2026. This marks the first extensive retrospective of the groundbreaking artist, filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist, showcasing nearly 100 works, many of which are being exhibited for the first time.
Kleckner's career, spanning from the 1970s onward, encompassed various mediums such as film, photography, performance, collage, and installation. She believed that art should serve as a platform for political engagement, care, and survival rather than merely a polished product. The exhibition's title reflects her late-life project that aimed to document her experiences with institutionalization and recovery, emphasizing that the "raw" was not a preliminary phase but the essence of her work--embodied, provisional, and unfiltered.
Despite her significant role in feminist art and film, Kleckner's legacy faced challenges due to systemic inequities and personal health struggles. This retrospective is the result of extensive archival work, particularly focusing on the Susan Kleckner Archives at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Among the exhibition highlights are documentation from the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, a notable 19-year anti-nuclear protest in England; materials from Window Peace (1986), a year-long performance where over 40 women artists took turns occupying a storefront window; and landmark feminist films such as Three Lives (1971), the first feature-length documentary made by an all-women crew, and Birth Film (1973), one of the earliest films to portray childbirth from a feminist perspective.
In addition to the exhibition at Haverford, a citywide initiative in collaboration with Lightbox Film Center and Public Trust aims to revive Kleckner's public and durational practices. This includes film screenings, a live musical performance accompanying Desert Piece (Outtakes) (1980), and a reimagining of Window Peace that connects historical insights with contemporary feminist practices.
As discussions around reproductive rights and bodily autonomy become increasingly relevant, Raw Material serves as a powerful reminder of Kleckner's belief that art is deeply intertwined with political life, where visibility itself can act as a form of resistance.
