In Secret Identities (1999), the Guerrilla Girls discuss the exclusion of women artists, writers, and performers throughout history. Concealed behind gorilla masks, the Guerrilla Girls take on the names of dead women artists—Claude Cahun, Julia de Burgos, Audre Lorde, and Ana Mendieta, among others—as a feminist gesture to counter the erasure of their work by cultural institutions. Furthermore, the video includes footage of Guerrilla Girls street actions targeting museums and galleries that fail to include women artists in exhibitions and collections. The names of several women artists are listed at the end of Secret Identities as a political act to re-inscribe their names into art history, which has otherwise failed to recognize their contributions to the field.
The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous women's collective that take on the names of dead women artists as pseudonyms for interventions. Concealed behind gorilla masks in action, the Guerrilla Girls use various tactics to intervene in art, culture, and politics. Through the production of printed materials, publications, and performance actions, the Guerrilla Girls expose political matters, convey information, and provoke discussions in public contexts. Notorious for exposing the exclusion of women artists, the Guerrilla Girls have staged interventions at the Museum of Modern Art, Venice Biennale, Centre Pompidou, among other renowned venues. The Guerrilla Girlswork is presented from feminist and humorist perspectives. www.guerrillagirls.com
