7000 Year Old Woman
Streets of New York • 1976-79
“Damon, in 1977, inaugurated a series of performances utilizing [the] epitomization of female presence… Her particular care in keeping her movements spare, deliberate, and slow asserted that a cyclical, self-returning process was being defined.”
—Extended Sensibilities, The New Museum
Excerpt from Heresies, 1977
The 7000 Year Old Woman. Who is she? Let me tell you the little I know about her. She is my sister, mother, grandmother, friend and lover. She has been the origin of my womanhood for the last 7,000 years and she is me, the ‘I’ about which I know very little… Because I grew more and more in awe of her and did not know much about her, the first step in depicting her was to give her a name. I have come to understand that I clarify her effigy. I have some skill and discipline, but she has enchantments of her own. I get to know her through the performances; this means I learn to exist through her.
Performances
Cummington Community, MA | 1978
a street event, Northampton, MA | 1978
a street event, Chicago, IL | 1978
Skidmore College • Saratoga Springs, NY | 1977
a street event, Wall Street, NYC | 1977
a street event, Prince Street • NYC | 1977
Cayman Gallery • NYC | 1977
