The Turning Point/Under Construction

Produced and directed by Darlene Haber/MediaVision, executive director, Suzanne Lacy.

From a performance by Suzanne Lacy with Barbara Clausen and thirty young women from Vancouver Canada, 1997-98.

Two hundred teenage girls in Vancouver, Canada are the participants in a public performance that culminated a two-year public art project on the lives and often hidden experiences of young women. Under Construction took place in a live construction site in downtown Vancouver, a city whose skyline changes almost daily with redevelopment and new construction. In an urban territory exclusive to men, these young women whispered secrets to each other that revealed lives that are not, as we often imagine, "picture perfect." The girls spoke frankly about their lives, bringing up issues that now, twenty years after the inception of the feminist movement, are still pervasive and destructive. The project was two years in the making, and was led by a group of 30 extraordinary high school girls who assisted in the final performance planning with artist Suzanne Lacy and several Canadian artists. Set against the construction site and the audience of 3,000, this videotape explores what it means to grow up female in Canada.