COFA1002 - Assessment One
Question 6 - Desire has often been conceived in terms of a lack: we desire what we lack, and we move endlessly (and impossibly) towards the object of desire. Against this notion, Gilles Deleuze conceives desire as a constructive force: desire produces its own objects. Taking up this idea of desire as a constructive, creative, productive activity, consider art and design practices as ways of exploring the possibilities of desire.
At the end of class in week three Melletios asked us to go create an object and wear/take it out in a public place as a little social experiment. This got me thinking. I instantly had the idea of going out clubbing in a hijab and to document the reactions of others. As I started to talk through this idea to various people, it became apparent that it could be received as offensive to both people that choose to wear it for religious/cultural reasons as well as, sadly, less educated or open-minded people that may not understand the ideas I wanted to explore. As someone who is very culturally western I view the hijab as fundamentally oppressive both to women and men. Women, in some cases, are not able to have themselves exposed without fear of sexual harassment and abuse. Women become a possession of the males within their family. I also can consider it oppressive to men as women outside of their families become this foreign, unknown object - an abstract concept. But we also have to take into account that many women see the hijab as a form of self-expression and liberation as well as a communication of their religious beliefs and devotion to these. The hijab can become a safety blanket to women as well. This brings me to start to question how this symbol can be seen as both oppressive and as granting freedom.
My thought then went towards the assignment. We desire what we lack. Desire breeds desire, we are constantly chasing something unobtainable. In advertising we see the objectification and over sexualisation of women every day. As women we are bombarded with visuals that tell us to act/be/look a certain way in order to be accepted, it is engrained in almost every social interaction. Women’s bodies as objects are used to sell almost anything and everything. But conceptualising desire as a thing we lack is against how Deleuze philosophised it.
My poster aims to highlight the contrast between the conservative ideals existing within Arabian culture and the overtly sexualised culture of Western society. I want to explore and question these two extremes where a hijab equals respect and pornography is considered liberating. Why do these two extremes exist? Can we have a happy medium where women are respected and men are not brutified? Where we understand the opposite sex to the best of our ability and have the ability to coexist without fear of the opposite gender. I aim to create a more open and respectful questioning of these differences through exploring desire as a creative, driving force as Deleuze perceives it.
The most obvious place to start my research was on Deleuze himself. His text "Anti-Oedipus" desire is explored where, along with academic Felix Guattari, they consider desire in relation to human psychology. Deleuze explores desire in relation to reality, in particular to capitalist constructs. In this text desire is discussed as a constructive, productive force that everyone possesses. He philosophises that one cannot think of on their own, its only when outside influences are introduced into one’s ‘field’ of desire that one believes they ‘need’ something. This contrasts with the more traditional philosophies of desire that it is when something is lacking.
http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/dls.2013.0120
I want to explore desire and have chosen in a way to use the symbol and concept of the hijab as somewhat of a case study in conceptualising and understanding the various philosophies on desire. This text helps to explain where Deleuze’s desire both originates and exists as well as other philosophies on desire. As many thinkers have previously analysed, desire was the opposite of reason and therefore should be restricted. If I am to look at the hijab through the old ways of thinking, mostly through Pluto, desire is something to be restrained and the woman is desirable so in order to restrain oneself and stay holy, she is covered. Comparatively in a more western existence where Deleuze’s philosophy could be considered, desire is fluid which I am hoping to symbolise as pornography. Deleuze decides desire – ‘It is like labour in essence, productive and actualisable only through practice.’ Porn in a way is the unrestrained production and product of desire.
Guerrilla art is innocent and criminal, ancient and dystopian, intimate and political. I chose the veil because it does what art should do: It challenges, it frightens, and it re-imagines - Princess Hijab
I came across this anonymous street artist called Princess Hijab whilst researching various things for this project. She works mainly in Paris painting hijabs on billboard advertisements with thick, black marker pen. She explains her motive as using veiled women as a challenge and believes that no particular way of dressing is either good or bad. She also considerers the hijab as a symbol as I’m wanting to in my project - "The veil has many hidden meanings, it can be as profane as it is sacred, consumerist and sanctimonious. From Arabic Gothicism to the condition of man. The interpretations are numerous and of course it carries great symbolism on race, sexuality and real and imagined geography."
Robert Montgomery is a visual artist who creates mostly billboard pieces but also makes fire poems, woodcut panels and watercolours. He describes his works as poetic and melancholic post-situationist tradition. These two pieces in particular explore the notion of desire, we all have the drive of desire which Montgomery calls ‘dreaming’, which links to our subconscious. He touches on consumerism which has been placed into our fields of desire due to mass media and advertising. These wants are created by an outside body.
