Mónica Mayer, Quiero hacer el amor, 1978
Mónica Mayer
Quiero hacer el amor

Intertwining artistic practice and political activism since the 1970s, Mónica Mayer expanded the traditional definitions and scope of what defines an artwork: “The most important thing feminist art has given me is the understanding that an artist’s work is more than producing art works. Doing research on women’s art, writing about them in my newspaper column in El Universal or publishing books about us, teaching, protesting and supporting other women artists is part of my work.” Trained as a visual artist at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas in Mexico City, Mayer received her master’s degree in Sociology of Art at Goddard College during the 1980s with a thesis entitled “Feminist Art: An Effective Political Tool”. Also in the 1980s, she participated in the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles. In 1983, she and Maris Bustamante founded the first feminist art collective in Mexico, Polvo de Gallina Negra (Black Hen Powder). Pinto mi Raya, a long-term project with Víctor Lerma, commenced from 1989 onwards.

artist's website: www.pintomiraya.com

Quiero hacer el amor (I Want to Make Love) is a series of postcards mixing performance, participatory and mail art. Mónica Mayer said, “They are like the tests one finds in women’s magazines. My face shows different reactions and there are instructions at the bottom for people to fill in according to how they feel about a phrase that changes in each postcard answering the statement: I want to make love with: ...” Answers included “my father, in a packed theater, myself, and get paid, etc. It’s cute to see they were actually quite shocking at the time.”

Mail art project: Casa de la cultura Bondojito, Mexico

Courtesy Mónica Mayer