Making and Unmaking Selves

Examining how we make and unmake ourselves through the lens of pop culture, theory, history, art, and whatever else strikes my fancy.

[makingandunmakingselves]

The woman in the film drinks in a bar. She's in hair curlers, a chiffon headscarf tied over them like a tarp over a log pile. The hollows of the curlers, spaces for hope: something good might happen. There was no sign of Sandro. I watched the film to keep myself awake while I waited. A man bought the woman a beer. She took dainty sips in her hair curlers, in preparation for no specific occasion. Curler time seemed almost religious, a waiting that was more important than what the waiting was for. Curler time was about living the now with a belief that a future, an occasion for set hair, existed.

From The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner

[ladiesupfront]

Our power is out so I’m spending the day sitting in his office to do my knitting and Antiques Roadshow watching.

Screenshot of a photo booth window so I can document the view from both sides.

[makingandunmakingselves]

I feel it is important to note that it took all of my willpower to not make a bad 'view from nowhere' joke, although now I'm cheating by saying that I wanted to do it. I also always want to make "veil of ignorance" jokes because, well, fuck that shit.

[worldssmallesttrampoline]

André Kertész

The Shadow Painter, Paris, 1927

gelatin silver prints

[boystown]

Annette Messager - Mes Jalousies (1972)

[artmusicvegan]

[atribecalledgoodbreed]

Neil Kenlock is a British- Jamaican photographer and entrepreneur based in London. For the past 20 years his work has documented the culture of Jamaicans living and visiting the UK. In 1979 he co-founded Root Magazine, the UK’s first black glossy lifestyle magazine. After the sale of the magazine in 1987, Kenlock later went on to become co-founder of Choice FM Radio, the UK’s first radio station broadcasting to the Black Community. Kenlock’s work is showing at the Tate Britain as part of the exhibit Another London through September 16, 2012. This exhibit brings together 180 classic twentieth-century photographs taken of London between 1930-1980, by International photographers, highlighting the diverse culture & views of the city. 

[monstercatmachine-blog]

Everything. Esp the shoes.

[lasbrujasdeplata]

Sarah Maple, ”An Artist and a Female Artist”, (Vinyl Wallpaper) 2012

[blackcontemporaryart]

Janna Ireland Objects for Women, 2012

[artmastered]

Aglaé Bassens, Ink Wigs and The Audience, 2012

[makingandunmakingselves]

Martha Wilson. Painted Lady 1972/2012, 2 color photographs and text, 29 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches

[jasminrisk]

Untitled, Jasmin Risk, 2013

[makingandunmakingselves]

Hunter Reynolds. Patina du Prey's Drag Pose Series October 21, 1989, photo-weaving, c-prints and thread

[cruiseorbecruised-deactivated20]

Franz Gertsch Marina schminkt Luciano [Marina Makes Up Luciano], 1975 Acrylic on unprimed cotton 234 x 346 cm

[blackcontemporaryart]

Latoya Ruby Frazier

Mom relaxing my hair

2005

Check out her current exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston.

[makingandunmakingselves]

Suzanne Lacy - Under My Skin performance, 1975 Text from page 1 of "Suzanne Lacy: Spaces Between" by Sharon Irish.

[makingandunmakingselves]

Even though the bathroom can be a refuge and a private place, I have always been afraid there. It is not a rational fear. It may stem from the fear I had in childhood of being sucked down the drain with the water, the ritual of confronting my nakedness, staring at my face in the mirror, the fear of being intruded upon. I wanted to convey the idea of vulnerability. The woman in the tub is made completely of loose sand. Sand is able to take a shape and retain its vulnerability at the same time. By the end of the show she was eroded by fingerprints. -Robbin Schiff

[dfgdfhxdhfg-deactivated20140428]

Womanhouse was an art exhibition created by students of Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro while they were teachers at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia. Beginning on January 30, 1972 and continuing until February 28 that year, an old house in Los Angeles was used as an exhibit for 21 women to create art that told the story of women in their own homes. Originally conceived by Paula Harper, a staff art historian for the Feminist Art Program at CalArts, Womanhouse was based on inspiration from personal stories told by the artists, as well as ideas conceived while repairing the mansion where the exhibition was to be held. Read more →

Feminist Art and Womanhouse

WOMANHOUSE: Cradle of Feminist Art by Sandra Sider

http://womanhouse.refugia.net/

[makingandunmakingselves]

She cannot take a bath The tub is lined with fur 200 plastic lipsticks painted repeated colors that will not stain her lips. Her panties have been sprayed Bras have been covered The room and all that entered have been painted lipstick red. Stage lights go on setting the room ablaze her hair is red her lips are red her gos is red She is hot The cameras roll. She has a name She is a woman and for a moment she is everything yet it is so absurd this stage. -Camille Grey

[queersquared-deactivated2019061]

Peter Hujar, David Brintzenhofe Making Up, 1982.