niki saint de Phalle France early sixties . Shooting paintings shot at a canvas . Early moment of feminist practice. even after feminist political movement grew, never large in France. she was quite unusual . Pioneer in a way, act of defiance. large gestural abstract paintings popular. Act of rebellion shooting at canvas dramatic at the time. Abstract expressionism had almost hyper masculinism . Pollock and de Kooning. would wear t shirts and jeans like construction worker. Hard working hard drinking image. for her to do shooting was a real act of rebellion at that time.
feminism politics and activism. ‘It turns out the questions once posed by women, for women, are of critical import to everyone.
visibility and having a voice. representation of identity, femininity.
-thematic context for practice
-explore feminism. Activism(practice that crosses over with art and protest politics) , and politics in art
-introduce and then And now (historical and. Critical practices or debates that inform current art
-raise critical questions and debate.
emotional labour - family - things you have to remmeber - like birthdays, buying groceries. everyday experience- sits in society as a political issue. debates about housework, abortion . Heathcare rights. in America and uk a lot of second wave feminist debate is over the question of rights in relation to law. In France. intellectually driven around psychoanalysis. unless thinking changes, culture can’t change. masculine feminine are they relevant helpful. terms and change the terms for debate.
Women’s art and feminist art.
19th century finally wuroeapn art schools buy even then very little
not accessible classes, like life drawing.
tapestry and embroidery - household work, mostly women did , went down in value. much like the secretary in the 20th century. these things shifts over time. art being politicised. mode of production , exhibition. ‘Women’s art’ become more marketable than feminist art. soften political impact of work. A lot of men are feminists.
Emilia jones. Implicit in everything feminist ideas. Not always obvious.
Guerilla girls. 90s frieze magazine , asked to take ad space in that magazine. They said no. just a few years ago they had space in the frieze art fair. What happened to enable that shift. Social media and influence of that. major museums are starting to think about gender balance in the collections. ___ enable artist to make an intervention. Manchester. ___
simone de Beauvoir... one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. the minute we enter the world, it’s a girl or it’s a boy immediately given a sex. we are all subject to that statement after.
Gender Trouble book: moved the movement a lot from when it was stuck in the seventies. looking at representations of men, lesbian gay etc. J. Butler . Used a metaphor of drag. Became almost a theorist on drag artists. always asked about it in interviews.
a lot of women interested in science fiction bc there’s room to imagine a world with more balance
our lives are constantly a performance. something about our identity signal gender ?
some pre-history. Engaging with modernism
- Jackson pollock : revolutionary : put canvas on floor.
- the figure on right : lee Krasner just as an onlooker (an artist as well, his partner at the time) 1940s. paintings created by her and him were quite similar. some elements of figuration in them. But it was pollock that became the figure of abstract expressionism. through ___ writings, didn’t really write about artists such as lee. Next year at Barbican big exhibit of lee krasner.
- very three dimensional , relief
- Amazing feeling shooting and watching it transform. sexy and tragic at same time
- 1963 dec. encouraged by friend to do works based on physical transformation of body. Visual territory. plastic and roped in studio. am image maker, flesh as Material. considered masculine, aggression
- one of the work swinging across and drawing.
- personal is political
- educational disciplines written from __
- essentialism.
shooting paintings
Carolee schneemann.
Lynda benglis . latex floor painting.
starting to gender thegallery space with that action.
painting on floor. Jenine antony ? (performance) come second hand in documentation mostly. long hair. Hair dye. loving hair. mopped the floor with long hair. gendering the floor. Feminine, cleaner. House work .
Second wave feminist criticism
patriarchy. social system around father-rule, father figure. family status. wealth prestige. Passing of surname.
feminism: equality ?
doesn’t create equality in us. created autonomy. games in healthcare rights etc not everyone take advantage of them. no money no access to rights much less equality. Civil rights accessible only to someone who’s already privileged. Like Hilary Clinton. feminism didn’t really create equality.?
intersectionality: education sexuality age gender ethnicity culture language etc
1969-96
US in sixties anti Vietnam’s protest, student , worker demonstrations, etc, artworkers coaltion. Big debates around art world.
Heresies. feminist art magazine (?)
Judy chicago .
female aesthetic.
___ post war painter + feminist art movement. almost two careers. XO - realised she painted abstract representation of female genitalia. revolution in China. groups of peasants in China would get together and speak about their oppression. about sexuality rape abortion... suddenly some of that debate came through with that work.
___ minimalist work. create image of life saving ring. feminist image, coding her experience of the female body. coding it so it wasn’t obvious. Art tutors at art college didn’t like that.
female imagery. debate as theory or aesthetic. Flowers, circular forms, Georgia p’keefe create flower paintings. Stop busy New Yorkers with petals beauty of flower. Her partner photographer had an avant garden gallery space. He encouraged those art critics to begin writing about her work as feminine, female architecture. Womb like space . she always objected to that through her career.
quite controversial.
Horrified by ideas California. strange hippie phenomenon. people started to question , this is quite a white idea.
‘womanhouse’ ? took over a house due for demolition. for few weeks. make work within the house. artist in spaces: good example of curation. make mannequin in wedding gown . Crotched , womb like space. Female imagery idea.
____ cyber feminism. online activism.
Miriam schapiro
handkerchief- glue fabric on canvas. collaging lots of different fabcris on canvas. art dealer didn’t want to show it. excluded by mainstream.
dinner party project. each plate setting represent woman from history/ mythology. kind of history project. hidden women’s lives. traditional craft skills . Porcelain painting. middle of tile floor names of more women. hundreds of women. almost all women making it. when it was completed very controversial. when project was shown in London a lot of hostile. been a bit of revival in interest in the project more recently nineties. rethinking of craft. Often in hierarchy gender. only one page is figurative. Sojourner of truth plate.
Hannah Wilke - SOS
Adrian piper .
thinking about body.
problem around performance art by women depicting the body because in order to critique the proximity of the body using the body often naked artists are in danger in reinforcinh what they were trying to critique. some women maybe won’t even use their body if they weren’t going and beautiful
starificayion / scarification - ritual of scarring body with growing up.
Chewing gum chewed into female imagery and stuck on her body. some look seductive, some more challenging thinking about spectator gaze.
Adrian piper. Series of performances. mythic being. began in apartment and in the streets. Dark glasses Afro wig hair dressed as man. went out into street and destruct social situation. she’s walking down the street with a woman’s voice but looking like man. talking to herself. audience don’t realise they’re experiencing artwork. Cruising White Women ?
Way that performance art transforms artist and viewer. Etc. social and cultural taboos are confronted or transgressed In These pieces.
Socially engaged practises: communities, contexts and politics.
what is literature ?’ Why literature - should be engaged in social and political.
socially engaged means not only involved in politics.
‘ Women & work’
Jo spence ‘working lives’ ‘invisible labour’
artist becomes anthropologist in the field. Significance of camera. consider context of production of these works. a lot of these projects exhibited in non gallery spaces. developed something called phototherapy. Co-coinciling - two people. jo spence dresses up as the mother and reenact difficult points in their life.
Marie Yates ‘image-woman-text’ deconstruction of foind kmages.
mary kelly ‘interim’ went into cafes and public spaces and overheard conversations between women and reproduce them anonymously. navigate by reading text and looking. exhibition space itself as a medium to intervene. in corners, very low, very high , actively become the person looking for the work.
image-text often found in political debates? How artists intervene.
mary Kelli decided not to use female body because there’s so many used already. Absence of female body.
Fact that mass media is
guerrila girls 1985. Formed
challenge representation of women in the art world. use magazine space debates etc.
Third wave feminism.
Mona hatoum. exiled in London couldn’t return. middle eastern conflict she couldn’t return to. performance pieces she filmed.
‘The negotiation table’ lie in body bag for eight hours in gallery.
Does feminist work have to involve femine female imagery? No.
can it be seen as sexist ? alienate a lot of men ? Depends on artwork and how issues are raised and audience is engaged. don’t always relate to art with experience. can relate with analysis.
