Starting on 18 July, Suzanne Lacy's "The Crystal Quilt" will be at Tate Modern. It was discussed on Women's Hour - if you can get BBC iPlayer you can hear it here .

suzanne lacy, the crystal quilt, 1985-7 photo- gus gustafson limited 

It's " a video, documentary, quilt, photographs and sound piece, combining the original elements of performance, activism and broadcast in an ambitious work that fuses social responsibility with the power of aesthetics". 


From the Tate website: "430 women aged over 60 from Minneapolis gathered together [in l987] to perform in a live tableau, lasting an hour and broadcast live on a public television network. Staged on a series of tables laid out on a huge square rug (designed by the painter Miriam Schapiro), the performers sat four to a table, their hands laid on the coloured tablecloths changing at ten-minute intervals to echo the shapes of different quilt blocks (the quilt being an emblem of the traditional sharing of North American female experience). While the performers discussed their experiences and reminiscences, the audience also listened to a soundtrack by composer Susan Stone mixing the voices of 75 women talking about ageing – personal observations, their own memories, and sociological analysis of the unused potential of older people."


More info is on the artist's website - http://www.suzannelacy.com/1980swhisper_minnesota.htm