ABSTRACT
The SisterSerpents were an anonymous, feminist art collective active in Chicago between 1989 and 1998. They used a mixture of creativity, humour, and anger to shed light on and provoke discussion around a wide range of issues including access to abortion care. They held exhibitions and performances; organised panels and discussions; wrote letters to the press; printed their own zine; and used guerrilla-style tactics to respond to misogyny. This chapter considers the Serpents’ use of images of the fetus within their work, especially in their exhibition Rattle Our Rage (1990), by looking at contemporaneous responses to their work and situating it within the longer history of fetal specimens in display, as a counter-dialogue to anti-abortion rhetoric, and as part of a larger conversation on the role of anger in feminist practice.
