Brute Heart

Brenda A perspective on art, culture and politics for ArtH 344 with a primary focus on feminist and activist art.

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Collaborative art for countries in conflict. U.S. and Iran.

Wonderful video with many perspectives. This not only demonstrates how off base the United States can be about the middle east, by simply not understanding their culture. The middle east, also explained in the video, is taught to condone the United States for it’s culture. This project is great because it allows two cultures or group of people relate and learn about each other.This project also helped people who live in ‘separate worlds’ form a relationship that would seem unlikely.The best part is that they’re doing it through art! The Irus Art helped people respect each other’s differences and help get rid of stereotypes that may be present between two countries in conflict. The Your Night My Day project is currently helping people communicate, using Google translate, to learn each other’s language, encouraging to fill the gap of the two countries even more. 

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Wow, what a great project! So, I’m sure there’s much to say about this (hint hint), but I was wondering what you all think about how this might relate to any of the positions regarding ‘relational aesthetics’ we’ve been reading about lately?

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This collaboration art project by Irus Art relates to many positions we have been discussing in class regarding relational aesthetics/social practice. Firstly, the collaboration between the American and Iranian artists bases the work in the sphere of human interactions. The Ours piece, especially, deals with social connotations, symbols and experiences and illuminates the numerous variations cultural symbols can contain globally. Additionally, these projects are open ended and nomadic, they are not exclusively site or country specific, and are based in collective encounters between artists and citizens of various backgrounds. Through the shared creative work of the American and Iranian artists, cultural stereotypes and boundaries are being broken and the collaboration process is leading to a bond and alliance between those involved. A bond that would previously be inconceivable due to media and government driven lies and prejudice. As the speaker mentions, the worth of the process is not so much in the aesthetic or artistic outcome, but in the process and the relationships that are born throughout the work. The artists involved are creating their own little communities of growth and highly communicative relationships which are inspiring unity and dialog about culture and point of views that have not historically been commonplace between the two nations. It's interesting to see how art can unite and educate people against stereotypes and government grudges and build global alliances through the process of collaboration and creation. Even though the cultures involved may have different values and viewpoints, this project showcases how the collaborative and creative processes of both societies, through social practices and imagination, are not so different that they cannot be bridged together and united by art and dialog. With Your Night/My Day, the collaborations go even beyond dialogic relationships and are forming an educational method for language and collaboration that goes beyond the scope of simple relationships and catalyzing dialog. 

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artculturepolitics:

southpaw541:

“Not Alone” is a project done by the Make Art/Stop Aids organization. This group is made of scholars, artists, and activists committed to end the global Aids epidemic. They believe that artists are an essentail part of the anti-Aids movement through awareness and appreciation of the art. “Not Alone” is a visual arts collection that showcases the role of art in fighting the Aids epidemic. This project was started in Los Angeles. The picture in this post is empty pill bottles that is called “Medicine Man” that was made by Daniel Goldstien and John Kapella.

Both this piece, and Félix González-Torres’ Untitled series interestingly address the issue of Aids through portraits of individuals composed of inanimate objects. However, Félix González-Torres’ pieces, while striking, are masked with brighter colors and the primary material of candy, whereas Goldstien and Kapella's piece is a striking portrayal of hardship and the consuming nature of Aids through the imagery of medication. However, both pieces illustrate the consuming and dehumanizing nature of the disease through their deviation from tradition portrait representations. The similarities between inanimate representations of people in both works reveals the negative connection resonant in all anti-Aids or Aids awareness pieces, illustrating the community as mythic unity that is formed between the members who participate in Aids activist art. Although all of the projects and experiences of those involved are separate and distinct, each artist is bonded to another due to the presence and influence of Aids upon their lives. As the women of Suzanne Lacy's Full Circle women's community work had different struggles and identities, so do the members and victims of the Aids movement and epidemic. However, like gender united the women of Lacy's project, illness connects the members of anti-Aids art, whether it be their personal experiences or those of a loved one. Therefore, Aids activist art forms a mythic community, which honors victims and sheds light of the realities of the epidemic and it's effects. A community of struggle that led to activism. 

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Jenny Holzer / Mikko Kuorinki

Both artists Jenny Holzer and Mikko Kuorinki produce art works that examine language, relationships and self.

1. Jenny Holzer

Holzer's Truisms (1977-9) series consists of statements and original thoughts which Holzer displays in print as well as publicly in the form of signs and landscape projections. Her work is not only a beautiful exploration of language and inspiration, it reveals the internal conflicts of self as well as critiques and provides commentary on social and political issues. 

Holzer's projection and sign work thrusts truths and knowledge into the everyday public landscape, provoking intelligent thought as well as self-reflection. The public presentation and various mediums of Holzer's Truisms make her work very accessible and relatable while simultaneously possessing a unique voice that is succinct, powerful and poetic. 

2. Mikko Kuorinki

Kuorinki's Wall Piece with 200 Letters (2010-1) is a similar exploration of language and an examinations of personal relationships and the psyche. However, Kuorinki's work resides inside a museum rather than Holzer's intricate intigration with the public sphere. Additionally, Kuorinki's work examines the relationship between individual self and surrounding realities through the limitations of 200 letters. Each day, Kuorinki exhibited a new phrase or statement on the gallery wall using and rearranging a collection of 200 letters. Therefore, each day revealed a new thought, personal truth or expression. 

While the voices and presentations of the art of Jenny Holzer and Mikko Kuorinki have distinct differences in the categories of personal voice and relation to the public realm, both beautifully experiment with language and the power of expressing thoughts and realizations. Holzer's work greatly examines the relationships between the self and others as well as strong social and political critique, while Kuorinki's work is more representative of the conflict and contemplations of the individual mind and depression. Though Holzer's work makes direct contact to everyday public life and therefore has a wider reach, Kuorinki's daily alternations and unique examination of the possibilities within a limited range of letters is equally admirable. 

Holzer and Kuorinki's comparable love of language and experimentation with expression and thought illustrate how artists with similar mediums can share an artistic connection while at the same time maintaining their distinct voices and presenting to the public/audience in respectively compelling and interesting ways. 

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Jenny Holzer's 1994 series LUSTMORD is a politically bold statement against murder and rape inspired by the war in Bosnia that's display combines technology and the body. The title comes from the German word lusmord, which stands for sexual murder involving rape. LUSTMORD opened at the Barbara Gladstone Gallery in New York and consisted of a series of displayed bones, LED screens/signs and photographs of bodies inked with the words depicting the experiences of sexual murder, violence and rape through poem. The bones displayed were those of both men and women, and the bones were, for example, fingers and collarbones that often attributed to being sensual parts of the body. The bones were inscribed with words from Holzer's poem. The signs of the installation contain a poem that depicts an exchange between a perpetrator, a victim and an observer. The piece also involved photographs of excerpts of the poem written in ink upon human flesh. LUSTMORD is a reaction to the use of rape and sexual violence as a military tactic, and is meant to shed light on the way these dark and horrific experiences have been normalized in western society and dismissed as mere tactics or their darkness and severity are simply ignored. The work is presented in a space resembling a dark tomb, with the only light coming from the screen and projected upon the bones and the photographs. The poem scrolls in bold neon letters across the scenes continually. The full text is never shown all at once, illustrating the multiple voices and viewpoints. Viewers were allowed to touch and stroke the bones. LUSTMORD beautifully, darkly and hauntingly depicts the disturbing realities of war and sexual violence. 

PERPETRATOR:

I SWIM IN HER AS SHE QUITES. I SINK ON HER. I SING HER A SONG ABOUT US. I STEP ON HER HANDS. I SPLAY HER FINGERS. SHE ROOTS WITH HER BLUNT FACE. SHE HUNTS ME WITH HER MOUTH. SHE HAS THREE COLORS IN HER EYES. I BITE HER CLOSED AGAIN. I AM NEAR HER MILK. I TELL HER TO SOAP HERSELF. SHE TIGHTENS AND I HIT HER. I WASH HER OUT. I WATCH HER WHILE SHE THINKS ABOUT ME. HER SALIVA RUNS WHEN SHE SLEEPS. I HOOK HER SPINE. SHE HAS A URINE SMELL. HER SWALLOW REFLEX IS GONE. HER HEAD EXPLODES IN THE FIRE. HER BREASTS ARE ALL NIPPLE. SHE ACTS LIKE AN ANIMAL LEFT FOR COOKING. I FIND HER SQUATTING ON HER HEELS AND THIS OPENS HER SO I CAN GET HER FROM BELOW. I TAKE HER FACE WITH ITS FINE HAIRS. I POSITION HER MOUTH. I WANT TO FUCK HER WHERE SHE HAS TOO MUCH HAIR. I HOOK MY CHIN OVER HER SHOULDER. NOW THAT SHE CAN STILL CONCENTRATE. SHE HAS NO TASTE LEFT TO HER AND THIS MAKES IT EASIER FOR ME. THE COLOR OF HER WHERE SHE IS INSIDE IS ENOUGH TO MAKE ME KILL HER.

  VICTIM:

I AM AWAKE IN A PLACE WHERE WOMEN DIE. THE BIRD TURNS ITS HEAD AND LOOKS AT ME WITH ONE EYE AS YOU ENTER. MY BREASTS ARE SO SWOLLEN THAT I BITE THEM. YOUR AWFUL LANGUAGE IS IN THE AIR BY MY HEAD. I DO NOT LIKE TO WALK BECAUSE I FEEL IT BETWEEN MY LEGS. HAIR IS STUCK INSIDE ME. MY NOSE BROKE IN THE GRASS. MY EYES ARE SORE MOVING AGAINST YOUR PALM. I HAVE THE BLOOD JELLY. WITH YOU INSDE ME COMES THE KNOWLEDGE OF MY DEATH. YOU HAVE SKIN IN YOUR MOUTH. YOU LICK ME STUPIDLY.YOU CONFUSE ME WITH SOMETHING THAY IS IN YOU. I WILL NOT PREDICT HOW YOU WANT TO USE ME.I FEEL WHO YOU ARE AND IT DOES ME NO GOOD AT ALL.I TRY TO EXCITE MYSELF SO I STAY CRAZY. WHAT IS LEFT ON THE BLANKET IS CLEAR AND THE COLOR OF HELL.

  OBSERVER:

I WANT TO LIE DOWN BESIDE HER. I HAVE NOT SINCE I WAS A CHILD. I WILL BE COVERED BY WHAT HAS COME FROM HER. SHE BEINGS TO MAKE MISTAKES IN HER LANGUAGE AND I CORRECT HER THE WAY SHE HAS TAUGHT ME. I FIND HER TOWERLS SHOVED IN TIGHT SPOTS. I TAKE THEM TO BURN ALTHOUGH I FEAR TOUCHING THINGS. SHE ASKS ME TO SLEEP IN THE HOUSE BUT I WILL NOT WITH HER NEW BODY AND ITS NOISES AND WETNESS. SHE SMILES AT ME BECAUSE SHE IMAGINES I CAN HELP HER. SHE COUGHS THE MOUTH STRINGS. I WANT TO BRUSH HER HAIR BUT THE SMELL OF HER MAKES ME CROSS THE ROOM. I HELD MY BREATH AS LONG AS I COULD. I KNOW I DISAPPOINT HER. SHE STARTED RUNNING WHEN EVERYTHING BEGAN POURING FROM HER BECAUSE SHE DID NOT WANT TO BE SEEN. SHE FELL ON THE FLOOR IN MY ROOM. SHE TRIED TO BE CLEAN BUT SHE WAS NOT. I SEE HER TRAIL. HER GORE IS IN THE BALL OF CLEANING RAGS. I CARRY OUT THE DAMPNESS FROM MY MOTHER. I RETURN TO HIDE HER JEWELRY THE BLACK SPECKS INSIDE MY EYES FLOAT ON HER BODY. I WATCH THEM WHILE I THINK ABOUT HER. I WANT TO SUCK ON HER TO MAKE HER RESPOND. I WALK OUTSIDE TO THE PATH AND SEE THE PLANTS, EACH HANDLED BY HER, UNMARKED BY HER DYING. SHE IS NARROW AND FLAT IN THE BLUE SACK AND I STAND WHEN THEY LIFT HER.

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I Wish Your Wish

Rivane Neuenschwander's I Wish Your Wish is a participatory art installation piece first shown at the Museu de Arte Moderno Aluisio Magalhaes in Recife, Brazil in 2004. In traditional São Salvador church Nosso Senhor do Bonfirm pilgrimage practices, ribbons are tied around a wrist symbolizing a wish or hope, and when that ribbon disintegrates and falls off that wish is said to come true. Inspired by that idea, Neuenschawander created I Wish Your Wish, consisting of a wall of ribbons silkscreened with the wishes of friends and strangers which the gallery-goers are then encouraged to take and tie to their wrists until they fall off. Neuenschwander encouraged participants to observe the ribbons and pick out a wish that was similar to one of their own, inspiring a communal connection and hope for the future; a realization that you are not alone in your struggles or dreams.

Participants were also encouraged to write down their own wishes, which Neuenschwander would then collect and silk screen onto ribbons that would then be displayed at the next showing of the piece. 

The ribbons have been printed in spanish as well as english, and the installation has shown in such sites as Brazil, Carnegie International and Pittsburgh. 

I Wish Your Wish connects people on a personal level, and encourages a selfless mindset of bearing other people's burdens and aiding in their dreams or goals with the simple gesture of indicating similarities and wearing a ribbon that expresses those similarities. 

I Wish Your Wish recently was shown at Neuenschwander's art opening at the New Museum in New York in 2010. 

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The Dinner Party

Judy Chicago's feminist art installation The Dinner Party was first shown in 1979, after which it toured through many cities, and is now permanently on display at the Brooklyn Art Museum. The work was created through a collaboration of various groups and is a depiction of 39 place sittings representative of 39 famous and mythical women. The table sits atop a tile floor containing the carved names of 999 more women whose lives are mapped out and portrayed on seven surrounding Heritage Panels. The project was created in hopes of honoring women who are continuously and commonly left out of history due to their gender being a diminishing factor for their work or contributions to the world. The triangular table consists of 39 square sections that are filled with 39 separate plates, napkins, utensils and drinking glasses which were painted, sewn and embroidered by a number of volunteers, both men and women. The Dinner Party, due to its connection to the domestic realms of food, cooking and decor is meant to not only be a celebration of these women but a statement of the merit and notability of crafts and domestic art that are usually mocked or uncelebrated in the dominantly male culture of art and art galleries. 

Because it was a celebration of female artists and figures, mythical and real, many of the place settings involve some sort of vaginal or vulval imagery or influence. One of the most famous and interesting of these is the author Virginia Woolf's plate:

Woolf's setting consists of a blooming flower plate, which Chicago states as a representation of Woolf's "advocation for unrestricted passion" through her work and her life. Flowers also represent fertility and growth, which women play a large part in throughout life. The center of the flower is also bursting open, a visual meant to represent Woolf's attempts to challenge and break free of the restrictions placed upon her by male literature throughout her career. There is also a stitched light beam beneath the plate, representative of Woolf's book To The Lighthouse and the ability Woolf had to illuminate ideas for others. The waves depicted by Woolf's name are to highlight Woolf's famous novel The Waves and are also a reminder of Woolf's suicide in a river. (more information of Virginia Woolf's plate and others here.)

Another of the place settings belongs to the poet Emily Dickinson. Dickinson was very reclusive and reserved, yet she flourished through her writing. Thus, her place setting, while minimalistic, is still intricate and dynamic like her writing. Her setting also greatly draws upon the aesthetics of the Victorian culture in which she lived. Her plate is not solid and is rather is made from various layers of delicate lace that was saturated into porcelain. Dickinson's place is very feminine because she was trapped in a very divided world that restricted her to stark femininity in terms of expression. Chicago states that Dickinson's place setting was inspired by this poem of Dickinson's:

I HIDE myself within my flower,   That wearing on your breast,  You, unsuspecting, wear me too—  And angels know the rest.  

  The installation also involved a wall of plaques thanks and commemorating the 129 members of the creative and administrative team of the work for their help and contributions to the piece.

Chicago's The Dinner Party has received much positive and negative criticism. Some regard it as very compelling, intricate and thought-provoking. Others see it as linking women as similar through their anatomy and therefore hurting the diversity of the feminist cause by reducing them to their sexual make up. Additionally, many find the sexual nature of the settings and plates to undermine many of the famous women depicted's works as sexual or gendered in their meanings. Despite the criticisms, Chicago's work still remains very well known today and is currently housed at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. 

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Silverman Gallery -Tammy Rae Carland - I’m Dying Up Here, (Mop Face) 2011

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Tammy Rae Carland's I'm Dying Up Here series depicts a series of female comedians in uncomfortable or vulnerable situations. Not only do these pieces address the uncomfortable and nerve-wracking relationships between performer and audience, they also seem to present a very interesting commentary on gender. This commentary is especially interesting in regard to the above piece I'm Dying Up Here (Mop Face), in which not only is the woman faceless and therefore absent of a true identity, she is also powerfully and directly connected to domesticity due to her relationship with the mop. The image of the woman's face as being a mop presents her as nothing more than a tool for domesticity and household upkeep. The firm connection between women and the home was also a major theme in the collective work Womanhouse which we covered in class; that strong and striking connection and illustration of the bond between women's identity and the home. Lia Wilson of Art Practical describes of Carland's I'm Dying Up Here series:

"Carland has exhibited these photographs along with framed punch lines from famous female comedians like Phyllis Diller and Moms Mabely. Many of these punch lines were of a self-deprecating nature; for those few women in this boys’ club, demeaning themselves was a common tactic to get a laugh. Though comedy was and is a place where gender roles could be made more flexible and societal mores potentially loosened, many early female comedians were discouraged, disgraced, and effaced by their male counterparts. Carland’s photographs re-perform the flailing female comic as both a tribute to the history of these women and as a poignant record of their vulnerability and self-humiliation."

Therefore, Carland's pieces not only comment on the relationship between women and the home but also on their reception in the public sphere, as well as the struggle women face to be accepted in a highly male-dominated society. Like Womanhouse and Faith Wilding's Sacrifice, Carland examines the realities of the sacrifices women must make in the form of their wills, their bodies and their dignities in order to survive and thrive in a male centered society. 

You can visit Carland's website and see more of her projects: here. 

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Janine Antoni. Mom and Dad, 1994. Three silver dye bleach prints. 

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Janine Antoni's 1994 piece Mom and Dad depicts three images of her parents. In each image her parents and transformed to look like one another. In the first image, we see both the mother and father together, with the father disguised as the mother and the mother disguised as her father. The following two images depict one parent presented as their normal self next to the disguised mimic image of their partner as themselves. This piece of feminist art really addresses the ideals and practiced of gender roles and gender presentation and calls attention to the different cultured expressions and appearances normalized to each gender in both clothing and make up. Much of Antoni's work play upon the concepts of expression and femininity. Apart from photography, Antoni also does performance art and sculpture work. As Mom and Dad uses make up and the body to create and image and art, Antoni's 1996-9 work Butterfly Kisses also examines the relationship between make up, the body and art. In Butterfly Kisses, Antoni covers a canvas with stroke marks made from batting her eyelashes against the canvas while they are covered in mascara. Here, Antoni's body is the tool that creates the art, similar to how in Mom and Dad, the body is the canvas for the art. With her use of make up and the body Antoni raises questions about the relationships between the traditionally feminine practices of make up and presentation for the public and how the use of make up itself is in a way a form or tool in art. While Antoni is very interesting in having a direct relationship with her art and her own body in using her own body as tools, she is also very interested in the relationship between herself and her audience, saying that she feels completed by their presence. Antoni is very interested in the process of the artwork, exemplified by the methodic eyelash painting that is Butterfly Kisses.

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"Building strong egos in the young women took a high priority in the educational program because a firm sense of self is indispensable to an artist, the center and source from which personal and therefore original expression flows. Since women are conditioned to please and defer to men, the presence of men would interfere with women students' self- development and expressiveness. Chicago decided that men would have to be excluded. She wanted the young women to compare themselves only with each other."

From The First Feminist Art Program: A View from the 1980’s by Paula Harper, I find this quote rather prescient in it’s radicalness as well as a poignant reminder: a social problem exists when a large enough group of individuals speak up and say that it does. This is evidenced here and it is evidenced still today in many ways. One such way is an institution in Seattle called the Seattle Girl’s School, or SGS as it is affectionately called by its students and staff. I had the wonderful opportunity of partnering with them during my time as Program Coordinator at Bike Works, a non-profit that uses bicycles as a vehicle for social change.

SGS is an all-girls school for students in grades 5-8. Although it does not adhere to the no-men approach that the FAP did, the institution exists for many of the same reasons: to give young women a place where they can be free to learn and express themselves without the oppressive presence of men.

Whether obvious or not I identify as your typical cis-gendered male, yet I was trusted to be a teacher, outdoor educator, and leader alongside the faculty of SGS. Each year Bike Works partners with SGS for a 6th grade culmination for the students in the form of a multi-day bicycle camping trip in the San Juan Islands. Bike Works’ program staff spends the months leading up to the trip (which takes place in the spring) teaching skills and leading rides with the entire 6th grade of SGS. This training builds up to a huge spectacle of a trip: 50 some young women and dozens of teachers, staff, parents, and BW employees taking part in a camping trip via bicycle. An event of this size requires multiple support vehicles, of course, but the students all ride from the ferry to the campground (approximately a 5 mile ride) on the first day and then tour Lopez Island with visits to a farm, a recycling center, and an art museum.

I’d like to point out that SGS has a number of male employees, but many are school cooks and janitors, with only a very small handful being teachers. Interestingly, however, the Head of School is a man. In my experience with the school over the course of two 6th grade culmination trips and numerous classes taught, the men working at SGS are men who I might cautiously label as “very socially aware.’ Feel free to interpret that in whatever fashion you want. This stands in direct opposition to the stance that Chicago took when she helped to open the FAP and falls more in line with Schapiro’s mode of thought. Also I believe that some of the students from FAP would agree with the male-inclusive model of SGS.

Also, I would like to think that the administrators of SGS believe that a positive representation of men can be just as empowering for the development of young women as the absence of men. An intentional learning environment can still foster a sense of empowerment in young women when in includes men and it can, perhaps, be important for said young women to experience mentorship from both men and women. This opinion is not at all influenced by any employee of SGS but, rather, is my own personal conclusion after my time involved with the school.

Furthermore, intersectionality acknowledges that no demographic exists within a vacuum and many experience marginalization in various forms. This could be interpreted to also say that no demographic can exist in a vacuum, apart from the influence of other demographics, which (in a giant leap of logic) could mean that Chicago’s view of the necessity for removing men is idealistic (though no doubt warranted and necessary at the time). Plenty of feminist scholars purport that feminism is not a social movement that has a place for men while others strongly disagree. I personally identify as a feminist and have had plenty of conversations (with both men and women) where I felt the need to defend how I self identify. I would like to think that feminism has evolved to a point where it would advocate for no attempts to call into question one’s way of identifying, but I’m sure that there are still plenty of feminists who would argue that this not need extend to men since men are entitled to all forms of privilege that women are not.

Thoughts on a separatist vs. inclusive approach?

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Because Chicago was working at a time when the feminist movement was very exclusive, not just to men but to minority groups as well, I think the fact that she chose a separatist approach with her collaborative projects is not at all surprising. And within that separatist framework her and her colleagues were able to produce some very powerful and provocative art, while at the same time they received a lot of alienating critiques and backlash. However, as feminism has grown throughout the years its members have geared more and more for a intersectional and inclusive approach toward equity for all groups. In order to achieve that, the points of view, support and voices of men are necessary to collaborate and further awareness and growth. A major part of this collaboration is an evaluation of the privileges we all possess and acknowledging how each of those privileges empower the individual while oppressing others. 

Many universities and colleges have started "I need feminism" campaigns that have become quite popular on the internet and feature men and women supporting the cause and saying why they need feminism. 

More here. 

Additionally. Many collaborative works for anti-violence and anti-rape have become more inclusive of male victims and voices. 

As we've seen with many projects in this class, any kind of exclusivity usually encounters backlash while at the same time uniting the common group involved. Personally, I think an inclusive approach is a better way to merge art and life and provide the most rich and interesting experience in an art work, though that widespread diversity is not commonly achieved nor easy. 

Much of the feminist collaborative art of the past has been very separatist, and I'm interested to see if there will be more inclusionary projects in the future as the movement pushes more toward intersectionality and inclusion and attempts to further distance itself from the media's stereotypically branding of feminists and their work as "man hating." 

[art-in-the-garden]

Faith Wilding was born in 1943 in Paraguay on a commune. She immigrated to the United States in 1961. Wilding’s art is some of the most memorable of the Feminist movement. Her current work is directed to cyberfeminist issues: issues regarding women and technology. She is currently employed at the School of Art Institute of Chicago. If you are interested in more about Wilding her website is: http://faithwilding.refugia.net/. You can find Wilding’s artist statement at this website as well.

  Wilding’s performance Waiting was one of her most memorable. The poetic monologue dealt with women’s socially outlined roles and desires. You can read the entire monologue here: http://faithwilding.refugia.net/waitingpoem.pdf. It was a very fascinating and charismatic performance. Waiting was a strong performance because of the Wilding’s choice of setting, actions, and words.

  The setting of Waiting made the performance very powerful. The audience sat in a circle around Wilding, all facing her. Wilding sat at the head of the circle, so that all could see her. This put all focus on Wilding, a very powerful position. Also, the circle the performance utilized mimicked many social functions, specifically social functions centered on teaching and story-telling. This placed Wilding in an environment that demanded attention.

  Wilding’s behavior when performing Waiting made her monologue unforgettably charismatic. Wilding did not make eye contact with any members of the audience. Instead, she left her eyes lowered and indirect. This reflected the boring quality of the waiting Waiting described. Wilding’s movement in her chair also made her performance riveting. It reflected an incredible variety of emotions like nervousness, boredom, anxiety, and pain. This created a very dramatic performance.

  Finally, Wilding’s word-choice made her performance Waiting a very influential work in the Feminist movement. Wilding’s use of repetition and sparse wording made her performance much more successful than if she had written an elaborate sonnet. Waiting utilized the importance of simplicity for getting a message across. This made Wilding’s points all the more poignant.  

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consumemyform:

Waiting also plays off the ideas of a woman’s life being directed by forces outside of her control, namely “waiting” for the male influence to act, and as a synedoche of women’s life, she is the passive carrier for that direction. Wilding’s performance took place in the larger scope of the Womanhouse which was designed and produced by FAP, Feminist Art Program at Fresno State in 1970. The performance laid out the expectations of a woman’s life during that time, which are still considered typical today. By making these conjectures obvious, the audience hopefully can become aware and find their own personal direction.

Waiting, like many of the projects of Womanhouse also illustrated the sacrificial nature women have internalized throughout their lives. Instead of being autonomous and exploring their different potentials, they are often left stagnant and waiting due to the societal roles and confines that are placed upon them to be nurturing and compliant. The repetitive and minimalistic aspects of Waiting , mixed with the keening and painful quality Wilding emits throughout the performance really highlight upon that theme of sacrifice which keeps the woman contained and at the request of those in her life who she is taught to serve and be subordinate to, such as her family and her husband. 

Wilding's 1971 installation at the Feminist Art studio in Fresno also highlights the connection between women and sacrifice. The piece, appropriately titled Sacrifice, consisted of a funeral parlor type setting in which a life-size figure of a women lays dead and bloody, cut open, upon and altar among blood, guts, kotex and fake flowers. This work was also participatory in that the audience was encouraged to light candles upon the altar for the sacrificed woman. It seems the sacrifice often involved in women's roles, whether that be sacrifice of their daily routines through waiting, or sacrifice of their bodies through birth and motherhood was a topic of key interest for Wilding, and, as we saw with Womanhouse with the "Nurturant Kitchen", "Menstruation Bathroom" and various other pieces of that work, it was for her fellow feminist artists as well. 

Do you know of any other feminist art pieces of this time that addressed the themes of sacrifice of the body or mind in the same, or different manners? Do you think these themes are still highly present in feminist art today? 

[bruteheart-blog]

Eve Ensler and the Vagina Monologues

In 1996, artist, performer, author and activist Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues  was first performed. Conceived as a play to raise awareness to women's issues such as sex, anatomy, violence, abuse and various other experiences of women, Ensler's play has served as a project focused on female empowerment and anti-violence since its debut. Perhaps the most well-known feminist participatory, collaborative and public art project in history, The Vagina Monologues are a series of monologues based off of the experiences of women and trans*women around the world, inspired by stories and information Ensler gathered from interviews and conversations with those groups. While Ensler's work was originally performed at the HERE Arts Center and later the Off Broadway Westside Theatre primarily by Ensler herself, The Vagina Monologues  are now performed annually at colleges, universities and community theaters around the world. The Monologues are performed at as many as 140 countries in 48 languages and serve to unite female performers of various ethnicities and backgrounds as well as their male and female audiences in a "celebration of vaginas", and in an empowerment of women with a hope to raise awareness and end sexual assault and violence.

Along with the Monologues  themselves, Ensler began the V-Day Movement, which are benefit performances of the Monologues that occur on Valentine's Day each year and support victims of abuse and violence by contributing proceeds to rape crisis centers and other shelters and organizations that help women. 

In 2004, Ensler included a new transgender-focused monologue, a result of the experiences of the first all-trans* cast that performed in LA that same year. Over the years Ensler has added to and altered the Monologues and the experience has changed and grown. 

Through comedy and sadness, The Vagina Monologues are a very touching and participatory experience which cause the performers not only to examine their own experiences and beliefs, but challenge the audience to share in these experiences and have more awareness and empathy for others. You do not need to consider yourself a performer in order to be involved in this project, you don't even necessarily have to identify as a feminist. The Vagina Monologues are a project aimed at being open and sharing experiences in order to celebrate and remember the beautiful, strong and funny woman-identified people in our lives. If you have not seen them, I highly suggest you do! The Vagina Monologues are an almost indescribable experience of love and diversity.

Despite the great courage and impact of Ensler's work, there are some problematic aspects to the work. Despite, the inclusion of the transgender monologue, many of the productions can be transphobic and exclusive, and some feminists have also critiqued the play as equating men with 'the enemy' and having a restrictive view of sexuality as well as at times giving inaccurate information regarding female anatomy.

However, just because a work may be criticized or flawed does not diminish the great impact of the work. Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues still serve as a greatly participatory and educational feminist art work that continues to be performed and have an impact today in revealing the unique experiences of women. The play serves as a great tool for anti-violence awareness and support as well as being greatly educational in its own engaging and unique way. 

[bruteheart-blog]

Using one specific project as an example briefly describe the general ways in which Ant Farm artists sought to alter the television and/or the experience of watching it.

With their project The Eternal Frame, Ant Farm sought to recreate the iconic images and videos of the assassination of JFK and thus critique the overwhelming saturation and impact of mass media documentation of tragedies that became commonplace after JFK’s death. Members of Ant Farm role played as the former president and his family and reenacted the fatal event. The presentation of a reenactment, of an image, that is almost identical to the original footage and event causes the audience to question the image and also to experience similar emotional responses by observing it. The observers of The Eternal Frame cried, called it a “beautiful enactment” and even wished to document it themselves. The fact that Ant Farm to recreate this event so well shows that no experience can be lost due to film and documentation, it can always be recreated and re-experienced. The Eternal Frame blurs the line between television and reality, and shows how the media easily sensationalizes and eternalizes everyday events and tragedies. Ant Farm’s projects highlighted the eternal impact and quality of film and art on film. 

[bruteheart-blog]

How does the NAMES Project function as a ritual?

The NAMES Project functions as a ritual firstly in that it always begins with grief which then leads to creation. Once a person dies, that grief is always what begins the rituals of creating a quilt for the NAMES Project. Secondly, the act of participating and making the quality acts as a sort of healing process for those participating in the ritual of transferring their grief into the creation of a concrete item. Next, the methodical presentation of the quilt at each location, the slow and continuous unfolding of the quilt and reading of the names, produces not only a uniform participation with those involved, but is also a ritualistic acknowledgement of mourning and simultaneous of education and enlightenment to each name. Presumably, the reading and hearing of the names produces the same sadness and emotion each time the quilt is presented, and that repetition of that emotional state is ritualistic in quality. Lastly, the anger that the quilt stirs provokes involvement or political action in some way in which often people are inspired to help with the quilt or to raise awareness in some way. This renewing of the cycle of production feeds and continues the cycle of the ritual; the repetition of grief, inspiration, productivity and collective effort and mourning.

[bruteheart-blog]

Next to the dining room was the "Nurturant Kitchen" in which everything--walls, floor, cupboards, utensils--was painted a fleshy pink. The ceiling was covered with plastic poached-egg shapes that gradually changed into breast as they moved down the walls, reminding us that the kitchen is the place where nurturing goes on for a woman's whole life. Chicago herself did a "Menstruation Bathroom", a glaring white room seen through a white scrim stretched over the doorway. In it a wastebasket overflowed with bloody Kotex below a shelf filled with commercial products for deodorizing and sanitizing women's cyclical flow.

A description of two rooms in the project Womanhouse, from The First Feminist Art Program: A View from the 1980s by Paula Harper.

[bruteheart-blog]

Maintenance is a drag; it takes all the fucking time (lit.) The mind boggles and chafes at boredom. The culture confers lousy status on maintenance jobs = minimum wages, housewives = no pay. clean your desk, wash the dishes, clean the floor, wash your clothes, wash your toes, change the baby's diaper, finish the report, correct the typos, mend the fence, keep the customer happy, throw out the stinking garbage, watch out don't put things in your nose, what shall I wear, I have no sox, pay your bills, don't litter, save string, wash your hair, change the sheets, go to the store, I'm out of perfume, say it again--he doesn't understand, seal it again--it leaks, go to work, this art is dusty, clear the table, call him again, flush the toilet, stay young.

from MANIFESTO FOR MAINTENANCE ART 1969! Proposal for an exhibition "CARE" by Mierle Laderman Ukeles

[gothbirthdayparty]

Semiotics of the Kitchen, Martha Rosler

[artculturepolitics]

A classic from 1975. Q: What (then new, now ubiquitous) television genre was Rosler responding to in this piece? In what ways does she alter the conventions of the genre? To what effect? In what context would the original audience of this work encounter it?

[bruteheart-blog]

Rosler is responding to the television genres of cooking or home economics that have now become widespread in our society with networks such as The Food Network. Even today, you will notice that most of the shows on the Food Network are headed by a woman. 

That being said, Rosler's aggressive and emotionless piece seems to offer a feminist critique on such genres and shows. I see it as a distancing from the well-held symbol of women being confined to the kitchen and linked to the processes and symbols of that kitchen. Her apathy, aggression and motioning of throwing the invisible food away makes a mockery of the conventions of the kitchen and cooking that women are confined to and, in a way, shows the inner frustration and pent up aggression that she feels in regard to the traditional stereotypes of women and the kitchen. It reveals the ridiculous and tedious nature of the kitchen and how it isn't really regarded with much importance by society, just as women were not regarded as being very important. 

I think the original audience of this work would find it jarring, but it was also produced at a time when the second-wave feminist movement was very widespread and many women were voicing their disapproval and distancing themselves from the confines of traditional roles and advocating for workplace rights. I think it's a great example of a feminist piece of art that is meant to spur thought in the public psyche!

[bruteheart-blog]

If you are interested in Feminist/Activist art the Brooklyn Museum has a great website dedicated to it's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. You can explore various exhibitions, a Feminist Timeline, as well as various tags and categories you can explore such as global feminisms, mixed media and performance art. 

The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art is an exhibition and education environment dedicated to feminist art—its past, present, and future. Among the most ambitious, influential, and enduring artistic movements to emerge in the late twentieth century, feminist art has played a leading role in the art world over the last forty years. Dramatically expanding the definition of art to be more inclusive in all areas, from subject matter to media, feminist art reintroduced the articulation of socially relevant issues after an era of aesthetic "formalism," while pioneering the use of performance and audiovisual media within a fine art idiom. (x)

The Museum recently honored Yoko Ono for her contributions to the arts. 

If you are looking to learn more about Feminist Art and the history of Feminism and Feminist Art, this is a wonderful resource!