Sister Serpents was a radical feminist art collective that began as a small group of women in Chicago in the summer of 1989, as a direct response to the Webster v. Reproductive Health Services Supreme Court decision.
We recognize and confront the misogyny that exists deep within society…Our struggle hopes to bring the demise of the system that allows for our brutalization… We involve ourselves with idea warfare, instead of the physical and emotional violence which has so long been used upon us… We bare our ideological fangs for the purpose of shocking… Our work is done anonymously… SisterSerpents has no modesty.
Their Chicago-based group expanded and by 1991 included chapters in San Francisco, Atlanta, Cleveland, Seattle,[1] New York, and Hamburg, Germany.
Panelists at this event included Lesley Brown, a woman who served time for the contract killing of her abusive husband; film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum; and curator Lynne Warren.
The exhibition was described by reviewers as "unabashedly agitational", and criticism of the show from feminists targeted the fact that it focused heavily on issues of abortion and male oppression of women.
[9] July 1990, The Guild Complex/At the Edge of the Lookingglass, 62 East 13th Street, Chicago To celebrate their first birthday, members created a collaborative mixed-media installation which featured a huge man-eating snake hanging from the ceiling, a series of banners, and a dartboard encouraging visitors to “take aim at misogyny” while throwing darts at sexist advertisements.
[5] Works on display included “Sports Nuts (Koons Meets Oldenburg for the Playoffs) by Mary Ellen Croteau, “What Men Fear Most” by Jeramy Turner, “Pennaddition” and “No.
1705366: This man yelled sexual comments to a women” by Margeaux Klein, as well as “Get it Straight: Violence Hurts” by Carol de Press.