DISBAND was an important excercise in overcoming solipsism, of pulling the paper bag off my head. By the time we disbanded in 1982, I could anticipate other member's perspectives. At the end of four years together we were playing members of Ronald Reagan's cabinet, and I was Alexander M. Plague, Jr., whom I continued to impersonate for one performance. That was before I hit upon Nancy Reagan for Artists' Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central and South America in 1984. I filled Nancy's empty vessel until I had to switch to Barbara Bush, and later still, Tipper Gore, in my continuing process of turning introspective, autobiographical performance for an internal sense of audience inside out, and focussing upon changing the world in whatever small way possible through political satire:

18. Martha Wilson as Alexander M. Plague, Jr. at A.I.R Gallery, New York, November, 1982. Photo by Roseann Livingston

NANCY REAGAN FREE AT LAST

I'm on the TV every day
At night they interview for what I'll say
About addiction and Cabbage Patch dolls
It's so rewarding somehow to have it all
Oh, maybe I know that be's been misspeakin'
Maybe I know that he's been untrue,
But what can I do?

It's so important to be too thin
If I could do it all over again
I'd be ambitious to be a success
Be the First Lady and be so well dressed
Oh, we don't have to read the papers
He's the Sun Prez and we are the news
We don't get the blues

Well in conclusion it's been just great
To have this chat with you and tell you straight
That everything is according to plan
It's 85 now, put your faith in our hands
Our democracy is supreme, Western Civ is all there is
To dream of, so let's be in love!

If you were ashamed in the 50s of your desire to make a killing, embarrassed in the 60s about lining your own pockets, afraid in the 70s to climb that ladder of success--fear no more! The Party of Tooth and Claw is here, in the 80s, for a second term. We have the answer to the Hammer and Sickle: We believe in blood! The old blood of family, the new blood of survival of the fittest. Let's face it. Republicans can be sadists in the open; Democrats have to cover it up!

19. Martha Wilson as Nancy Reagan in "Just Say No to Arms Control," Brother Ron's Atomic Gospel Hour, New York, October, 1987. Photo by Benita Abrams