A purple curtain sits in the middle of the main room of Gus Fisher Gallery Te Whare Toi o Gus Fisher, with vintage television sets on either side playing video works from nine iconic feminist artists. The curtain is the centre of Having it all, all, all, a powerful and entertaining exhibition exploring the activism and identity politics of Second Wave Feminism and its critiques.

Curated by Lisa Beauchamp, the exhibition runs until May 10 and showcases remarkable works including Martha Rosler’s Semiotics of the Kitchen (1975; a parody of cooking shows with an undercurrent of rage), Howardena Pindell’s Free, White and 21 (1980; “a deadpan account of the racism she experienced coming of age as a black woman in America”), Martha Rosler’s Martha Rosler Reads “Vogue” (1982; a performance piece that sees her flip through the pages of an issue while asking questions like, ‘what is fashion?’) and Pipilotti Rist’s Ever Is Over All (1997; not to make this about Beyoncé, but this piece inspired the Lemonade video). 

The free exhibition continues until May 10, with an array of public events including a panel discussion on April 26 on Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece 60 years on, which is also on display.

Ahead of our Ensemble Presents private tour, we talked to Lisa about the exhibition itself, the divisiveness of second-wave feminist art, the power of video works and how many of the works on display still have relevance in 2025 – including the fallacy, still perpetuated by some ‘women’s interest’ media, of having it all.

Ensemble Presents: A private tour of Having it all, all, all

On Thursday April 3, our paid subscribers are invited to an intimate, after-hours tour of this must-visit exhibition. Led by curator Lisa, this private experience will include art, conversation, snacks and wine from Three Fates Wine.

Want to join us? Upgrade to a paid Substack subscription here for $7 a month or $75 a year, then email us to RSVP (spots are limited). Your support means a lot to this independent, women-owned business, guarantees our future and makes fun events like this possible!

Why this exhibition, and why now? What made you want to curate it and bring it to Gus Fisher and to Auckland?

Gender politics and intersectionality has informed many of the exhibitions I’ve put together at Gus Fisher Gallery, and these are things that just ground me as a curator and a person. There is never a wrong time to do a show like this, and I could do it 10 times over and more with different artists. To me feminism means equality, and I understand gender and identity as something that is fluid and unfixed. 

I think that sometimes there is a tendency to look back sceptically on second-wave Feminist practices – whilst intended to be empowering for all women, it was also divisive and I suppose I wanted to open up the conversation a little more, to look at some key figures who connected to this time but also operated on the periphery, or whose work didn’t fit within the framework. With activism there are factions and divisions, and Feminist Art was no different but that doesn’t mean it didn’t achieve a great deal and still can.  

Why focus on video work? What do you think video works allow that other mediums may not?

Video was an important way of capturing these artists’ ideas and there is a reason they used it. Most of the artists have used video for its ability to record a particular moment in time – a performance featuring themselves, an action or an event. Sometimes the artist is in charge of the video apparatus, or they are relying on another person to record their movements through a camera.

Performances like Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece, Hannah Wilke’s So help me Hannah, and Martha Rosler’s Semiotics of the Kitchen all demonstrate the relationship between the performer and the camera, and the medium of video as a means of vital documentation. 

Yet even with this documentary approach, the artists would have been involved in how they were going to be recorded. The movements of the person behind the camera is deliberate and almost becomes part of the performance in Hannah Wilke’s work. Whereas in other works the video is chosen for the medium itself – Pipilotti Rist for example was inspired by MTV music videos, the capabilities of video giving her the fluidity, movement and rawness that she wanted for her artwork.

There are so many amazing works and artists in the exhibition, but Yoko Ono's Cut Piece is obviously iconic. Why is it so iconic as a piece of art, and why did you want to include it in this? It was created in the 60s, but is still relevant today.

It's been sixty years since Yoko Ono first performed Cut Piece at New York’s Carnegie Hall, with two performances in Japan occurring in the previous year. She also then performed it in 2003 in Paris as a protest against war and terrorism, following the September 11 attacks and America’s subsequent invasion of Iraq. Ono’s continued message of peace and resilience is paramount, and in 2025 we need it more than ever. 

It's important to look back at works like this and consider their legacy and what it means to look at them through a contemporary lens. If we look at Cut Piece and read it as a challenge to the subjugation and violence against women’s bodies, then its potency remains –  in 2025 women still do not have control over their own bodies. Reproductive rights are still being debated, overturned and abortion criminalised. Domestic abuse statistics and rape cases dominate headlines as does sexism, misogyny and incel culture. While one artwork can't answer to all of this, it does hint at the fact that much has still not changed. 

What is your favourite piece in the exhibition?

This is a hard question to answer because they are all very close to my heart, and they all bring such different and important contributions to the exhibition. Whether through the ecstasy and joy sparked by Pipilotti Rist, the confronting and pivotal work of Nil Yalter, the enduringly relevant work of Howardena Pindell and the beautifully resonant Ana Mendieta.

Seeing people’s reactions to the works are the best, and hearing plenty of giggles from visitors watching Pipilotti Rist’s Ever is over all never gets old! The works have definitely struck a chord with audiences and that’s a great thing to see. 

Tell me about the title of the exhibition: Having it all, all, all.

The title is taken from a phrase in Martha Rosler Reads Vogue (1982). In the video, she flicks through the pages of Vogue, commenting on the famous fashion magazine and its advertising and the glamorous lifestyles we are being sold, or suggested we strive to attain. However, her narration is served with a dose of irony and works to critique the surface-level aspirations of the magazine and its reduction of women to simple objects of desire. 

She repeats the phrase ‘Having it all, all, all’ which almost becomes a mantra to the work and could also be interpreted as a question. If Vogue was telling us that we needed to have it all in 1982, then is it still doing that now and what does ‘all’ actually mean for women? Are we meant to hold down a job, manage a household, provide for our spouses and children, earn enough and have time to deck ourselves in designer goods? Is that what having it, all, all, all means? Or can we set our own standards – has the burden of responsibility implied by this statement increased or is the framework of what constitutes it now up for debate?