RIGHT OUT OF HISTORY: The Making of Judy Chicago's "Dinner Party" (1980)
Schedule
Fri Mar 28 2025 at 07:30 pm to 09:30 pm
UTC-07:00Location
Philosophical Research Society | Los Angeles, CA
About this Event
“This powerful and poignant film chronicles the trials and tribulations, the joys and fears, the emotional and intellectual growth that went into the making of ‘The Dinner Party.’ It is a remarkable story.”—The San Francisco Chronicle
“A coherent, accurate record of the communal process.”—The Los Angeles Times
“A superb and valuable film. ... It is a dual documentation of the arduous work of neglected American crafts, and of a community of feminist artists executing that work ... a one time in history event. ... As a film, it is its own art work...”—Film Library Quarterly
Join us for a rare screening of filmmaker Johanna Demetrakas' candid and stirring document of the making of feminist artist Judy Chicago's trailblazing art installation "The Dinner Party" – RIGHT OUT OF HISTORY: THE MAKING OF JUDY CHICAGO'S "DINNER PARTY" (1980).
For five years, Chicago worked with a community of four hundred other artists, craftspeople and researchers to create “The Dinner Party,” a monumental tribute to women of spirit and accomplishment throughout the ages — women whose names have been banished “right out of history.” For over four of those five years, Johanna Demetrakas followed the progress of “The Dinner Party,” recording for posterity the alternately painstaking and exhilarating process of creating this work of unprecedented scale and beauty.
Right Out of History reveals the behind-the-scenes drama of this enormous undertaking — the meticulous research, the technical problems and financial pressures, and the amount of sheer physical labor involved in creating a symbolic history of women’s achievements. Judy Chicago commented that Right Out of History “is a unique document ... the only record of a contemporary working community of artists, a community which provides insights into the ateliers, workshops and guilds of the past ... it is the only record of a community of primarily women trying to transform their experience into a work of art.”
About The Dinner Party
Featuring 39 place settings on an open triangular table resting on a ceramic tiled platform, The Dinner Party depicts and celebrates the lives of mythical and historical women, each of whom represents a historical period in Western civilization. The 39 women were selected from among thousands of women researched for the project based on their accomplishments and their contributions to the betterment of conditions for women. Each place setting contained a painted, often carved, porcelain plate featuring a vulva-butterfly motif on a runner decorated using a variety of fiber art techniques. The platform, called The Heritage Floor, was inscribed with the names of 999 other women “intended to suggest that the achievements of such individual women as those presented at the table had to be seen against the background of this larger female history.”
Although she initially planned The Dinner Party as an independent work, Chicago soon concluded that the scope of the project was too vast for her to complete on her own, and she engaged volunteers to help her realize her vision. Working in her studio in Santa Monica, California, Chicago guided nearly 400 volunteers over five years as they embroidered runners in the needle loft, researched the lives of women, assisted in the creation of the plates, and engaged in fundraising and publicity events. Believing that the volunteers should learn about women’s history and empowerment, Chicago instituted potluck dinners and consciousness-raising sessions, many of which were filmed and included in Johanna Demetrakas’s documentary, Right Out of History: The Making of Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party.
– Harvard Radcliffe Institute
Dir. Johanna Demetrakas, 1980, 75 mins, United States, Unrated, English, Color, Digital.
Special thanks to Robert Sullivan of The Phoenix Learning Group.
Ticket price: $10 (in-person event only).
Please email [email protected] or phone 323-663-2167 with any questions.
All photos courtesy of Through The Flower Archive.
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Where is it happening?
Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 12.51
