Menu
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery

Search Results

← All news

02 Dec 2024

Remembering Anna Banana (1940-2024)

  • Anna Banana

    Anna Banana (Canadian, 1940-2024) was a conceptual performance and mail artist. Born in Victoria as Anne Lee Long, the artist adopted the name Anna Banana in 1971 when she began corresponding with the International Mail Art Network (including Image Bank’s artist lists). Between 1973 and 1981, Banana lived in San Francisco where she collaborated with Bill Gaglione of Dadaland and the Bay Area Dadaists, and began publishing VILE magazine, a counterpart to General Idea’s FILE Megazine, itself a parody of LIFE magazine. Banana’s performance works include Futurist Sound, Proof Positive Germany is Going Bananas, Banan Communion, But, is it Art? and the interactive public performance, the Banana Olympics. In 2021, Anna Banana donated her artwork and paper archive to the Belkin and UBC Rare Books and Special Collections respectively; the Belkin’s holdings include exchanges with artists in the International Mail Art Network, issues of VILE magazine, costumes from the artist’s performances and a selection of her Artistamp editions, among other items.

    Read More

The Belkin shares the community’s sadness at the recent passing of artist Anna Banana on 29 November 2024 in Sechelt, BC. Born in Victoria as Anne Lee Long, Anna Banana was a conceptual, performance and mail artist who adopted her pseudonym in 1971 when she began corresponding with the international mail art network (including Image Bank) and sending out her Banana Rag newsletter. Between 1973 and 1981, Banana lived in San Francisco where she collaborated with Bill Gaglione of Dadaland and the Bay Area Dadaists, and began publishing VILE magazine, a counterpart to General Idea’s FILE Megazine, itself a parody of LIFE magazine. Banana’s performance works include Futurist Sound, Proof Positive Germany is Going Bananas, Banan Communion, But, is it Art? and the interactive public performance, the Banana Olympics.

The Belkin is particularly grateful to Anna Banana for donating her artwork and paper archive to the Belkin and UBC Rare Books and Special Collections respectively; the Belkin’s holdings include exchanges with artists in the international mail art network, issues of VILE magazine, costumes from the artist’s performances and a selection of her Artistamp editions, among other items.

Anna Banana’s playful resistance to the social status quo throughout her long artistic career will be deeply missed. We share our best thoughts and wishes with her family and friends.

Watch Anna Banana’s 1975 Banana Olympics

 

Image: Anna Banana, Banana Olympics (still), 1975. Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Anna Banana Collection, 48.1.07

 

  • Anna Banana

    Anna Banana (Canadian, 1940-2024) was a conceptual performance and mail artist. Born in Victoria as Anne Lee Long, the artist adopted the name Anna Banana in 1971 when she began corresponding with the International Mail Art Network (including Image Bank’s artist lists). Between 1973 and 1981, Banana lived in San Francisco where she collaborated with Bill Gaglione of Dadaland and the Bay Area Dadaists, and began publishing VILE magazine, a counterpart to General Idea’s FILE Megazine, itself a parody of LIFE magazine. Banana’s performance works include Futurist Sound, Proof Positive Germany is Going Bananas, Banan Communion, But, is it Art? and the interactive public performance, the Banana Olympics. In 2021, Anna Banana donated her artwork and paper archive to the Belkin and UBC Rare Books and Special Collections respectively; the Belkin’s holdings include exchanges with artists in the International Mail Art Network, issues of VILE magazine, costumes from the artist’s performances and a selection of her Artistamp editions, among other items.

    Read More

Related