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Betsy Damon
Born	(1914-01-09)January 9, 1914
Died	July 15, 1995(1995-07-15) (aged 81)
Alma mater	Columbia University

Betsy Damon (1940 - ) Betsy Damon is an American Performance Artist, whose work focuses primarily on female myths.

Education

Damon was raised in New York City and received an M.F.A. at Columbia University. She began working on performance in the Feminist Art Studio, which she founded at Cornell University in 1972.

Career

Three years after that, she started presenting her work in a public space. Since then, Damon has performed in solo and group events across the United States. The performances that she creates are reminiscent of rituals, many of which, she stages with other women. Damon's piece The 7,000 Year Old Woman was the first of her's be held in the streets and to involve the audience as spectators. In the piece, Damon would transform herself into a matriarchal figure, tied to a line of women stretching back 7,000 years, from mother to grandmother. Through this character, Damon explore the relationship of women to time. In the first performance of The 7,000 Year Old Woman, she tied 60 pounds of flour to her body, then squatted in the middle of a circle of women engaged in meditation. Damon then moved in a spiral path towards the circle, while slashing the bags. After the performance was over and the bags lied empty on the floor, she would invite the audience to take the bags home and perform their own ritual. In each following performance, Damon would explore a different aspect of the old woman persona.

Further reading

• Brave Black Women: From Slavery to the Space Shuttle
• Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers by Jeanne Moutoussammy-Ashe