Sisters Of Survival

Film / Video / Performance

2008, 8 minutes

A short documentary about Sisters Of Survival, a performance art group that emerged from the Woman’s Building in the 1970s. The doc was directed and edited by Cheri Gaulke for the exhibition “Making It Together: Women’s Collaborative Art + Community” at the Bronx Museum of the Arts and curated by Carey Lovelace.

Sisters Of Survival (S.O.S.) is an anti-nuclear performance art group founded in 1981 by Jerri Allyn, Nancy Angelo, Anne Gauldin, Cheri Gaulke and Sue Maberry. Clothing themselves in the colors of the rainbow, their imagery evoked hope, humor and a celebration of diversity. Inspired by anti-nuclear war demonstrations in Europe, S.O.S. created END OF THE RAINBOW, a three-part conceptual art project that generated dialogue between the people of North America and Western Europe about the nuclear threat. Their work included public performance art staged for the media as well as the general public, artists’ books, a billboard, slide lectures, networking with artist and activist groups, a radio program and a traveling exhibition. Learn more about this pioneering group whose art and media strategies addressed global issues that remain urgent today.