Did you find this more theoretical approach helpful, interesting, inspiring, restrictive or boring?
It certainly hasn't been boring, although for a few weeks I was missing the practical textile work that was part of the other modules. Then my sketchbook work became more tactile and it was in fact liberating to be able to work on what I wanted without being restricted to the coursework.
Researching artists was helpful to the extent that it made it clearer to me what the range of artists work in textiles encompasses, and helped me to much better understand the craft/art and feminist contexts of textile art. It unexpectedly helped me to place myself in cultural context, and to understand that many (if not all) of my attitudes to art and crafts are derived from this without me knowing it.
Of course it was inspiring too and I am sure that I will be using some of the things I have learned in my sketchbook, either intentionally or otherwise, in future. I was particularly moved by the powerful size and organic textures of Magdelena Abakanowicz's sculpures, and this has revealed to me that I was holding back on this part of my vision because of the idea that it was too rough and emotional. I expect to explore her work more thoroughly, and that having learned about her will allow me to express this part of my vision more freely now.
Were you already familiar with some of the designers and artists in the set list? Whose work was completely new to you?/ How did you respond to it?
I didn't know of Leon Bakst, Ethel Mairet, or Magdalena Abakanowicz before this, and had not really explored any of the others except Tracey Emin.
Leon Bakst's designs appealed because of the strong colours, and the physicality of the female bodies he drew wearing his costumes. There was a feeling of freedom and joy in them, and playfulness. It is easy to see why he influenced others, although it seems as though his ideas were taken and stylised so much that they were no longer comfortable!
I had great difficulty finding images of Ethel Mairet's work on the internet, and was unable to get to see the collection in Surrey, or to find a copy of her book. Given this lack of reference information, it seems to me that her influence is due to her teaching others to use vegetable dyes and traditional weaving in 20th Century England.The images I have seen have been of samplers of weaving in subdued colours wtih limited interest to me. On the other hand, I do enjoy weaving and subtle colours, so I don't really know why these did not inspire me to do more of this, or to find out more about her. However, I did get interested when exploring artists who were taught by her including Peter Collingwood and Tadek Beutlich, both of whom took her basic weaving into the third dimension.
Did you find the questions we gave helpful as a basis for your analysis?
Yes, the list of questions was a good way of making me think about pieces and the way they work. In particular the question 'how does it work?', which made me focus on the details of the way they had been designed and produced to have a particular effect.
Do you think that an awareness of the context in which work is produced will influence the way in which you approach your own work in the future?
I think we are lucky to be working in a time when the boundaries of fine art and craft are breaking down as this allows freer experimentation and innovation is encouraged. Each module so far has released me to be freer in my exploration and this has been enjoyable and enlightening. I have learned that the context is changing all the time and that it can be inspiring and delightful to learn about what other people are doing.
Do you feel stimulated to do more research work of this nature in your own time?
Yes, I understand much better the value of this kind of work, and I am keen to learn more about Magdalena Abakanowicz, and about current artists in all modalities.
Thursday, 31 July 2014
Monday, 28 July 2014
Home is where the roots are Theme Book
During this research project I have been working in my sketchbook, and particularly on a theme book about roots. What I find attractive about roots is both the physicality of their fleshiness twisting around each other, combined with the fine tendrils, and the symbolism of their clinging and stretching to find nourishment and stability.
Here is a selection of the work I did on this subject:
This roots idea coincided with a thought that my hall is rather bare and some imagery about home would be good under the stairs.
Hence 'home is where the roots are'.
Monoprints exploring thick and thin organic lines.
Natural fibre woven yarns exploring different ways of representing roots.
It became apparent to me that these were all raw and rough, giving a feeling of the grasping, survival aspects of roots more than the secure, homely aspect.
So I thought about how I could make a similar image with more luxurious yarns.
On the left, shiny hair falls in a rhythmic way, and could be a beautiful, luxurious metaphor for roots.
Right - knitted 'roots' in a variety of luxurious fine yarns and translucent plastic, separated by the more 'earthy' upholstery yarn.
Other explorations of roots images included knitting in different sized wools (left); fabric manipulation with threads left as rootlets (below left), combined monoprint and drawing (below right).
There is a problem with almost all these techniques, which is that they only describe the top layer of roots, leaving the mysterious depth of darkness behind and beneath.
This trial of fabric manipulations was a little more successful, I think, with horizontal lines adding to the texture. I followed this with an experiment in tie-bleaching a piece of black fabric.
The result was this fantastic ghostly striped image which gives something of the feeling of the dark roots under old trees.
This was my sketch of what it might look like to have this as the background to some more 3D roots under the hall stairs.
I have been exploring the way friendship bracelets are made recently, and wondered if I could use this knotting technique to make something root-like. Here are my two attempts:
After making these, I was lucky enough to go to South Africa on holiday. This produced lots of ideas images for my sketchbook, and below there are a few relevant to the roots theme book:
Zulu village fence made of branches stuck into the ground
Below left - Zulu hut before thatching
Eucalyptus tree trunks in the sun.
This is a photo of the branches of a tree, taken through the insect door of my tent. The combination of regular rectangles and the predictable/ unpredictable angles of the branches appealed to me in much the same way as root do visually, and so I drew it, and then explored this more in embroidery and net-making with silver yarns of various thinknesses (below).
I picked up some fronds of two plants while on the beach, and explored how they could be woven together into a flat piece:
By this time my ideas about roots had merged with some of my ideas about how to represent my identity as a more or less complex and light-admitting sphere.
This is the latest related image in my sketchbook.
Here is a selection of the work I did on this subject:
This roots idea coincided with a thought that my hall is rather bare and some imagery about home would be good under the stairs.
Hence 'home is where the roots are'.
Monoprints exploring thick and thin organic lines.
Natural fibre woven yarns exploring different ways of representing roots.
It became apparent to me that these were all raw and rough, giving a feeling of the grasping, survival aspects of roots more than the secure, homely aspect.
So I thought about how I could make a similar image with more luxurious yarns.On the left, shiny hair falls in a rhythmic way, and could be a beautiful, luxurious metaphor for roots.
Right - knitted 'roots' in a variety of luxurious fine yarns and translucent plastic, separated by the more 'earthy' upholstery yarn.
Other explorations of roots images included knitting in different sized wools (left); fabric manipulation with threads left as rootlets (below left), combined monoprint and drawing (below right).There is a problem with almost all these techniques, which is that they only describe the top layer of roots, leaving the mysterious depth of darkness behind and beneath.
The result was this fantastic ghostly striped image which gives something of the feeling of the dark roots under old trees.
This was my sketch of what it might look like to have this as the background to some more 3D roots under the hall stairs.
 |
| Chevron friendship bracelet with curled upholstery cord |
 |
After making these, I was lucky enough to go to South Africa on holiday. This produced lots of ideas images for my sketchbook, and below there are a few relevant to the roots theme book:
Zulu village fence made of branches stuck into the groundBelow left - Zulu hut before thatching
Eucalyptus tree trunks in the sun.
This is a photo of the branches of a tree, taken through the insect door of my tent. The combination of regular rectangles and the predictable/ unpredictable angles of the branches appealed to me in much the same way as root do visually, and so I drew it, and then explored this more in embroidery and net-making with silver yarns of various thinknesses (below).
I picked up some fronds of two plants while on the beach, and explored how they could be woven together into a flat piece:
By this time my ideas about roots had merged with some of my ideas about how to represent my identity as a more or less complex and light-admitting sphere.
This is the latest related image in my sketchbook.
Chicago essay
I've finally finished off the essay about Judy Chicago today, and have a few reflections about this endeavour.
The experience of intellectual focus on an artist:
On the practical side, the essay came out at 2200 words in the end (not including the bibliography), but there remains so much more to say and think about. As is often the case, the more I find out about someone, the more I find interesting. However, the life and work of this artist in particular led me away from studying how an artist works with textiles, and since I am doing this course to learn the skill rather than the theory, and I am very much missing the practical aspects of previous modules, this experience is steering me away from doing the art history module.
Research process:
Like feminist commentators I read during this project, I found relatively little commentary other than on Chicago's website. Chicago's shows were generally put on by herself or in collaboration, rather than being curated by institutions. As far as I can tell, the most prestigious institution to be involved was in London as late as 2012. Critical commentaries on the internet are few and far between. Whether this reflects critical opinion of the overall importance of her work, or the prejudice described by feminist art historians, or something else, I cannot tell. It may be that respect for her will grow with time. Or it may be that I am one of the dinosaurs and feminist issues will come from a different perspective for future generations.
I went to the Barbican Library which had two books about her work by one author, which were relatively uncritical (and in one case written for an exhibition), and some of her own autobiographical writings. While it was useful to find out her own thoughts about her work and motivation, these books had limited ability to illuminate either her relation to the artistic and political environment she was in, or her influence on subsequent generations. In fact, you could infer that the lack of apparent commentary suggests a lack of influence. Which leads me to ask - if that is the case, why is she on the OCA list of artists? I don't know what to think. Is the list itself another example of women artists trying to redress a historical imbalance in knowledge of and reference to female endeavour?
The presentation of the essay:
My researches into the political and artistic milieu of the 1960s and 70s led me to explore McLuhan's 'the medium is the message'. IE that it is the implicit information which is important in an image or idea. There is a lot of mileage in thinking about this more. But for this essay, I thought about how the presentation could reinforce Chicago's message about the central celebration of women through the 'central core imagery'.
I initially thought about printing it on A3 paper, with 'butterfly vagina's' from The Dinner Party in the centre, opening out like a flower onto the next page. However, since this is an essay where the important information is in the writing, and this would have required the written words to be pushed to the corners of the pages, I decided against this presentation.
My compromise solution was to print the essay onto a background of these images, allowing them to decorate and underly the narrative. This worked out well on the page about her legacy, as it allowed me to symbolically superimpose an image of a current art students' work about the external construction of female identity on top of Chicago's image.
The celebration of the central position of women in human culture:
This has to be a good thing and through the research and essay process, I have been trying to think of a better way to do this in art than the way Chicago did it - and I have not been able to think of a better way. Hers was a truly grand project, apparently from the very beginning, and she knew it.
The experience of intellectual focus on an artist:
On the practical side, the essay came out at 2200 words in the end (not including the bibliography), but there remains so much more to say and think about. As is often the case, the more I find out about someone, the more I find interesting. However, the life and work of this artist in particular led me away from studying how an artist works with textiles, and since I am doing this course to learn the skill rather than the theory, and I am very much missing the practical aspects of previous modules, this experience is steering me away from doing the art history module.
Research process:
Like feminist commentators I read during this project, I found relatively little commentary other than on Chicago's website. Chicago's shows were generally put on by herself or in collaboration, rather than being curated by institutions. As far as I can tell, the most prestigious institution to be involved was in London as late as 2012. Critical commentaries on the internet are few and far between. Whether this reflects critical opinion of the overall importance of her work, or the prejudice described by feminist art historians, or something else, I cannot tell. It may be that respect for her will grow with time. Or it may be that I am one of the dinosaurs and feminist issues will come from a different perspective for future generations.
I went to the Barbican Library which had two books about her work by one author, which were relatively uncritical (and in one case written for an exhibition), and some of her own autobiographical writings. While it was useful to find out her own thoughts about her work and motivation, these books had limited ability to illuminate either her relation to the artistic and political environment she was in, or her influence on subsequent generations. In fact, you could infer that the lack of apparent commentary suggests a lack of influence. Which leads me to ask - if that is the case, why is she on the OCA list of artists? I don't know what to think. Is the list itself another example of women artists trying to redress a historical imbalance in knowledge of and reference to female endeavour?
The presentation of the essay:
My researches into the political and artistic milieu of the 1960s and 70s led me to explore McLuhan's 'the medium is the message'. IE that it is the implicit information which is important in an image or idea. There is a lot of mileage in thinking about this more. But for this essay, I thought about how the presentation could reinforce Chicago's message about the central celebration of women through the 'central core imagery'.
I initially thought about printing it on A3 paper, with 'butterfly vagina's' from The Dinner Party in the centre, opening out like a flower onto the next page. However, since this is an essay where the important information is in the writing, and this would have required the written words to be pushed to the corners of the pages, I decided against this presentation.
My compromise solution was to print the essay onto a background of these images, allowing them to decorate and underly the narrative. This worked out well on the page about her legacy, as it allowed me to symbolically superimpose an image of a current art students' work about the external construction of female identity on top of Chicago's image.
The celebration of the central position of women in human culture:
This has to be a good thing and through the research and essay process, I have been trying to think of a better way to do this in art than the way Chicago did it - and I have not been able to think of a better way. Hers was a truly grand project, apparently from the very beginning, and she knew it.
Influence on my work:
As I mentioned in an earlier post, reading about feminist ideas about art and the art world, has tapped into part of me which has been relatively unexpressed. This has led to a variety of more or less subtle images of my female identity in my sketchbook. These ideas come from both ends, as it were - from the contextual side, or from the more 'pre-verbal' identities that come out during explorations of texture and three-dimensionality. My head likes the first, and my stomach likes the second. I don't know if it's possible or even adviseable to try to do both. I suspect that my 'natural' style, and certainly the one that appeals most to me in art, is the second. Perhaps I should have chosen to study Magdelena Abakanowicz instead! Time to explore her more later.
My female identity is a complicated thing, as it is tied up with all sorts of other issues, including my decision to do a course in textile art rather than fine art, and the pursuit of art as self-exploration, hobby or profession. My ideas have been focussed by this train of thought, and I am now feeling more confident about taking it seriously as future profession.
I have started by looking at some group shows by textile artists, and subscribing to craft magazines, circulation lists for galleries and competitions that include textile art. But the biggest change is in my head - that I am a 'developing artist' rather than just a student.
Monday, 30 June 2014
But is it Art?
Now that I've spent some time researching Judy Chicago, the women's movement and its influence on Art, my perspective has changed a little. Not only on feminism, but on Art as well.
Bias is endemic
I see it everywhere - this blindness to women's contribution or even at times to our presence - and that there is a lot of work to be done - and that it is an uphill struggle and would tend to destabilize everything, and that anyone who aligns themselves with this work inevitably becomes part of the blind spot.
It's in me too
I see that those attitudes and blindnesses that Judy Chicago was trying to right in 1960s and 70s America are in my marrow too, much as I'd love to pretend I don't see a hierarchy between fine art and craft. Much as I'd love to pretend that I would never dismiss the 'merely pretty' arts as 'girly'. I have swallowed the 19th century male-dominated rules and taken them as my own, and I don't know if it's possible to do anything about that. Or (my feminist soul forgive me) if I really want to: wouldn't that make me an outsider in my own culture? You can't escape your culture. And my culture is to develop the skills to express myself in my own way, but as a hobby because I also have a 'proper job'.
How do we know when something is good?
And you have to have some criterion of quality that isn't totally individual, don't you? So how can you dismiss the whole edifice of the Art establishment? Er....I see that this paragraph could be a lifetime long. I suspect that 20th Century Art might have been all about this question in some way. I think I should do some more reading and thinking on this subject too. (But not here, because this entry is all about me!)
What am I learning from this?
I begin to think that while feminism is one of the biggest issues for me, it is not the reason I am doing this course. I signed up for this course to learn to open up the visual and tactile world to myself. So that I can enjoy the material world more, and create things of and from myself. Not to close it all down into a single narrow-minded channel of activism.
The thought of activism comes in when I think that there are parts of me that are not acceptable for expression outside myself, and that this shows something fundamentally wrong with the rules. While you could argue that this is just me being a product of my culture, it seems to me that the best way to manage this when it comes up would be to express myself anyway. Like Judy Chicago did.
I am lucky enough to live in London where there are a million subcultures. Perhaps I need to find some people who think of artists as valuable members of society rather than naval-gazing weirdo drop-outs! And start expressing the part of me that may be different, without worrying too much about what might be thrown at me if I do.
Bias is endemic
I see it everywhere - this blindness to women's contribution or even at times to our presence - and that there is a lot of work to be done - and that it is an uphill struggle and would tend to destabilize everything, and that anyone who aligns themselves with this work inevitably becomes part of the blind spot.
It's in me too
I see that those attitudes and blindnesses that Judy Chicago was trying to right in 1960s and 70s America are in my marrow too, much as I'd love to pretend I don't see a hierarchy between fine art and craft. Much as I'd love to pretend that I would never dismiss the 'merely pretty' arts as 'girly'. I have swallowed the 19th century male-dominated rules and taken them as my own, and I don't know if it's possible to do anything about that. Or (my feminist soul forgive me) if I really want to: wouldn't that make me an outsider in my own culture? You can't escape your culture. And my culture is to develop the skills to express myself in my own way, but as a hobby because I also have a 'proper job'.
How do we know when something is good?
And you have to have some criterion of quality that isn't totally individual, don't you? So how can you dismiss the whole edifice of the Art establishment? Er....I see that this paragraph could be a lifetime long. I suspect that 20th Century Art might have been all about this question in some way. I think I should do some more reading and thinking on this subject too. (But not here, because this entry is all about me!)
What am I learning from this?
I begin to think that while feminism is one of the biggest issues for me, it is not the reason I am doing this course. I signed up for this course to learn to open up the visual and tactile world to myself. So that I can enjoy the material world more, and create things of and from myself. Not to close it all down into a single narrow-minded channel of activism.
The thought of activism comes in when I think that there are parts of me that are not acceptable for expression outside myself, and that this shows something fundamentally wrong with the rules. While you could argue that this is just me being a product of my culture, it seems to me that the best way to manage this when it comes up would be to express myself anyway. Like Judy Chicago did.
I am lucky enough to live in London where there are a million subcultures. Perhaps I need to find some people who think of artists as valuable members of society rather than naval-gazing weirdo drop-outs! And start expressing the part of me that may be different, without worrying too much about what might be thrown at me if I do.
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Chelsea School of Art Degree Show
I like going to degree shows to see what other undergraduates are doing.
It's inspiring, and in some ways reassuring, and fun.
Chelsea clearly has a lively textiles course, and you can see the fine art, graphic and interior & spatial design work at the same time, just over the road from the Tate Britain.
Walking around it this year, I was thinking about what I want to see, as a 'consumer', and what I came up with was either beautiful, or witty, or best of all, innovative pieces. As Martin Newth, BA Fine Art Programme Director says in the introduction to the catalogue: 'Perhaps the most exciting work is that in which the sense of the artist taking a risk is most evident.' There are always a few that stay with you. This time I was also on the look out for feminist art, to work out for myself whether I agree with Judy Chicago that the present generation is not building on previous ones (Explored in my sketchbook rather than here). And noticing how effective or otherwise were some different ways of presenting textile work.
Nianni Huang
The simple and effective use of a 2D fabric to make 3D regular patterns. Loved it, and want to try some myself.
I think the presentation let it down a bit.
I much prefer the way it was presented in the catalogue (see below), which showed the eye for colour and texture, and the three dimensional nature of it, much better.
Olivia Hulme
The beautiful bright colours of the open work and contrast with the flat white of the shirt caught my eye, and reminded me that I have wanted to explore more with the dissoving fabric.
I hadn't thought of trying contrasting colours.
This would be great to wear.
I'm not sure the layers work very well. I didn't really notice the colours underneath. Perhaps it works better on.
Emily Buckman
Fantastic textures, like decaying snake skin.
Mario Chou
Witty ideas (below) made in an interestingly different way.
There was a powerful feeling of discomfort and disgust with the body in Lynne Searl's pieces of clothing, which I could relate to strongly, and made me want to see more.
I thought that this, more than any of the more overtly feminist pieces, expressed the emotional content of the difficulties of having a female identity.
It made me aware of how many cultural assumptions we make about clothing, and what is expected or permissible. And that making clothing that breaks these expectations this out can be very effective.
Ji Chen took the idea of weaving into a third (or is it fourth?) dimension with attractive and interesting results.
Smart ideas for presenting work in a professional way included this book printed by Snapfish, and Chloe Griffin's poster skillfully produced to look like an advertisment for high end casual clothng.
Nic Worsley's samples (below left) were hung to emphasise the appeal to boutique shoppers. And the placement of Chaerin Lee's attractive variations on subtle woven waves (below right) suggested an appeal to industry.
As usual, my attention is most excited by sculptural pieces which explore texture, so I came back to Saaya Kamita's basket and weaving object several times to have another look.
It repaid more looking - there are several layers of detail here. One close-up is shown on the right.
I sometimes wonder whether it's ok to make something just because it is interesting to me, (ie without 'meaning' or purpose) and then I see something like this and know that as long as it's done wholeheartedly, that's more than fine!
One thing that always occurs to me at textile design shows is that it must be quite tricky for tutors, since there is clearly a wide variety of aims in the student body. Unlike, say fine art, or graphic design, where there is a bit more of a direction intrinsic to the subject. Some students clearly hope to design for industry, while others are exploring the nature of existence, and still others the qualities and potentials of the materials and techniques. I suppose that you hope that by the end of the degree each student will have an idea about which strand suits them best. It does seem to be divided by technique, though (weave, print etc), rather than along commercial/ Art/ craft lines. I guess dividing it in this way is just in my head and they're all artists.
It's inspiring, and in some ways reassuring, and fun.
Chelsea clearly has a lively textiles course, and you can see the fine art, graphic and interior & spatial design work at the same time, just over the road from the Tate Britain.
Walking around it this year, I was thinking about what I want to see, as a 'consumer', and what I came up with was either beautiful, or witty, or best of all, innovative pieces. As Martin Newth, BA Fine Art Programme Director says in the introduction to the catalogue: 'Perhaps the most exciting work is that in which the sense of the artist taking a risk is most evident.' There are always a few that stay with you. This time I was also on the look out for feminist art, to work out for myself whether I agree with Judy Chicago that the present generation is not building on previous ones (Explored in my sketchbook rather than here). And noticing how effective or otherwise were some different ways of presenting textile work.
Nianni Huang
The simple and effective use of a 2D fabric to make 3D regular patterns. Loved it, and want to try some myself.
I think the presentation let it down a bit.
I much prefer the way it was presented in the catalogue (see below), which showed the eye for colour and texture, and the three dimensional nature of it, much better.
Olivia Hulme
The beautiful bright colours of the open work and contrast with the flat white of the shirt caught my eye, and reminded me that I have wanted to explore more with the dissoving fabric.
I hadn't thought of trying contrasting colours.
This would be great to wear.
I'm not sure the layers work very well. I didn't really notice the colours underneath. Perhaps it works better on.
Emily Buckman
Fantastic textures, like decaying snake skin.
Mario Chou
Witty ideas (below) made in an interestingly different way.
I thought that this, more than any of the more overtly feminist pieces, expressed the emotional content of the difficulties of having a female identity.It made me aware of how many cultural assumptions we make about clothing, and what is expected or permissible. And that making clothing that breaks these expectations this out can be very effective.
Ji Chen took the idea of weaving into a third (or is it fourth?) dimension with attractive and interesting results.Smart ideas for presenting work in a professional way included this book printed by Snapfish, and Chloe Griffin's poster skillfully produced to look like an advertisment for high end casual clothng.
Nic Worsley's samples (below left) were hung to emphasise the appeal to boutique shoppers. And the placement of Chaerin Lee's attractive variations on subtle woven waves (below right) suggested an appeal to industry.
 |
| Natasha Gervais' collars were unique and intriguing. I was only sorry that she hadn't made a whole costume with this technique. |
 |
| Eve Kennedy's beautiful translucent fabrics captured the regular reflectiveness of skyscrapers in a way I could only dream of. |
It repaid more looking - there are several layers of detail here. One close-up is shown on the right.I sometimes wonder whether it's ok to make something just because it is interesting to me, (ie without 'meaning' or purpose) and then I see something like this and know that as long as it's done wholeheartedly, that's more than fine!
One thing that always occurs to me at textile design shows is that it must be quite tricky for tutors, since there is clearly a wide variety of aims in the student body. Unlike, say fine art, or graphic design, where there is a bit more of a direction intrinsic to the subject. Some students clearly hope to design for industry, while others are exploring the nature of existence, and still others the qualities and potentials of the materials and techniques. I suppose that you hope that by the end of the degree each student will have an idea about which strand suits them best. It does seem to be divided by technique, though (weave, print etc), rather than along commercial/ Art/ craft lines. I guess dividing it in this way is just in my head and they're all artists.
 |
| Strangely considering the subject matter, because of the layout of the work in this room it was difficult to be sure which project this one belonged to. But the catalogue confirms it is The Seed designed by Yuki Teroka. It reminds me that the most important aspect of roots after their textural qualities is what the roots appear to be nourished by. In this case, the decay of business? My 'home is where the roots are' has to be feeding on something more wholesome and nourishing - love...family...deep brown earth. |
Saturday, 14 June 2014
Finding out about Judy Chicago could change my life
Of course I started with an internet search, and came up with the Judy Chicago website, lots of links to the Brooklyn Museum which is the home for 'The Dinner Party' and the Elizabeth Sackler feminist art archive. There is a lot there to explore.
I'm just going to write down some of the reactions I have had to looking through what is there on the internet about her and her work, starting with 'The Dinner Party' which is clearly her biggest and best-known work.
To start with, having read 'The Obstacle Race' by Germaine Greer some years ago, I had no trouble understanding (in my head at least) that there is an imbalance in the perception of and judgements about women's work in the fine art world. And, for that matter about women's achievements and contribution in English-speaking culture as a whole (which are the cultures I know). And that this is compounded by a minimising or ignoring of the talent and achievements of so many women who came before us, even, I'm sorry to say, by educated aware women like me. So trying to address this imbalance by going to the very core of the difficulty - making a huge celebration of genius influential women from the past - seems like an excellent idea. I am trying to get my head round to how I would celebrate this myself.
Illustrating each of these great women with a colourful painting of a vulva in a relevant style I see as odd. It has the advantage of pointing out that this is what all these women had in common. (Possibly the only thing other than that we still know their names). Is it gratuitous, just to market the idea as widely as possible? Get it talked about in US Congress? It seems not. There is a rationale, about celebrating the fundamental quality of womanhood, instead of denigrating or ignoring it. This makes sense in my head, but there's something that just doesn't ring true for me.
It has undoubted shock value. Which is surprising considering how many thousands of female nudes I have seen in my life. But never one with a visible vulva, I think, except in images created solely for sexual purposes. Even the famous Courbet painting of 'The origin of the world' hides away the actual organ of creation. Which could easily be interpreted as proof that our bodies in some way belong to the sexual observer rather than to women.
There is a video of a performance artist pointing this discrepancy out 'in the flesh' in front of the Courbet painting here (considered suitable for adults only) http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/06/11/vaginas-art-deborah-de-robertis-nsfw-video_n_5483497.html
Seeing this had a dislocating effect on me, because of the great chasm between what I know from my experiences and understanding of my own body as a woman, and what is allowed or expected in my culture. This perspective change, brought on by looking at 'The Dinner Party' have made me notice all the moments in my day when blanket assumptions about people are made on the basis of gender. My consciousness is well and truly raised.
I have gone on to start reading a marvellous book called 'Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology' by Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock (1981 Pandora Press) which puts into words those things I understood only at a pre-verbal level about institutional sexism, the heirarchy of arts and crafts, and some of the reasons women are stuffed before we start when it comes to being recognised as artists. I have these prejudices engraved into my self as well. I know it, I see it in myself, and I have some work to do to sort out what I really think. This is not about blaming men for it. We're in this mess together.
All this reminded me of a long series of moments in my past life when this discrimination was evident and material to decisions I made and judgements other people seemed to be making. For example, the discrepancy between what I knew of myself and the judgements other people made of me because of my gender was directly responsible for me deciding not to become a surgeon. Because my work life would be a constant struggle against cultural expectation, and I knew I did not have the confidence to take that challenge at that time.
I suspect that later generations than mine have less of this difficulty - I hope so. I am very happy to think that it would be difficult for my daughters to relate to the experience of popular culture being made as if there were no women in the audience (The example that comes to mind is Benny Hill).
I had a pushme-pullyou feeling about looking at all those brightly coloured images of vulvas. (vulvae? I don't even know the proper plural word, whereas I know for sure how to say two penises). I couldn't actually look at them at first - my eyes kept slipping off, embarrassed. And then seeing them in terms of their decorative style rather than what they represent. I have no problem looking at Judy Chicago's cartoon-like painting of an erect penis in her 'Bigamy' car hood. Found it quite friendly, even. Why is it that a psychedelic cartoon of a penis suggests a friendly tease about potency, while the same treatment of a vulva suggests something two-dimensional and pretty. There - that is the problem in a nutshell - my brain is prejudging before I have a chance to have a say.
Artistically, this simplified brightly coloured style doesn't really add to the viewers experience or understanding, and only really works for me when she has something to say. And some of her work doesn't affect me in the way it was apparently intended. The impact of her 'Menstruation' for example (mild disgust) compares poorly with the resonance of 'linen cupboard' - an image of a woman literally caged by the shelves of a domestic cupboard - by a student of hers at a Womenspace exhibition. Perhaps it would have been more effective at the time, when presumably the idea of menstrual blood was more taboo, and may have alerted some of the audience to the discrepancy between real women and the cultural image of 'woman'.
I'm just going to write down some of the reactions I have had to looking through what is there on the internet about her and her work, starting with 'The Dinner Party' which is clearly her biggest and best-known work.
To start with, having read 'The Obstacle Race' by Germaine Greer some years ago, I had no trouble understanding (in my head at least) that there is an imbalance in the perception of and judgements about women's work in the fine art world. And, for that matter about women's achievements and contribution in English-speaking culture as a whole (which are the cultures I know). And that this is compounded by a minimising or ignoring of the talent and achievements of so many women who came before us, even, I'm sorry to say, by educated aware women like me. So trying to address this imbalance by going to the very core of the difficulty - making a huge celebration of genius influential women from the past - seems like an excellent idea. I am trying to get my head round to how I would celebrate this myself.
Illustrating each of these great women with a colourful painting of a vulva in a relevant style I see as odd. It has the advantage of pointing out that this is what all these women had in common. (Possibly the only thing other than that we still know their names). Is it gratuitous, just to market the idea as widely as possible? Get it talked about in US Congress? It seems not. There is a rationale, about celebrating the fundamental quality of womanhood, instead of denigrating or ignoring it. This makes sense in my head, but there's something that just doesn't ring true for me.
It has undoubted shock value. Which is surprising considering how many thousands of female nudes I have seen in my life. But never one with a visible vulva, I think, except in images created solely for sexual purposes. Even the famous Courbet painting of 'The origin of the world' hides away the actual organ of creation. Which could easily be interpreted as proof that our bodies in some way belong to the sexual observer rather than to women.
There is a video of a performance artist pointing this discrepancy out 'in the flesh' in front of the Courbet painting here (considered suitable for adults only) http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/06/11/vaginas-art-deborah-de-robertis-nsfw-video_n_5483497.html
Seeing this had a dislocating effect on me, because of the great chasm between what I know from my experiences and understanding of my own body as a woman, and what is allowed or expected in my culture. This perspective change, brought on by looking at 'The Dinner Party' have made me notice all the moments in my day when blanket assumptions about people are made on the basis of gender. My consciousness is well and truly raised.
I have gone on to start reading a marvellous book called 'Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology' by Rozsika Parker and Griselda Pollock (1981 Pandora Press) which puts into words those things I understood only at a pre-verbal level about institutional sexism, the heirarchy of arts and crafts, and some of the reasons women are stuffed before we start when it comes to being recognised as artists. I have these prejudices engraved into my self as well. I know it, I see it in myself, and I have some work to do to sort out what I really think. This is not about blaming men for it. We're in this mess together.
All this reminded me of a long series of moments in my past life when this discrimination was evident and material to decisions I made and judgements other people seemed to be making. For example, the discrepancy between what I knew of myself and the judgements other people made of me because of my gender was directly responsible for me deciding not to become a surgeon. Because my work life would be a constant struggle against cultural expectation, and I knew I did not have the confidence to take that challenge at that time.
I suspect that later generations than mine have less of this difficulty - I hope so. I am very happy to think that it would be difficult for my daughters to relate to the experience of popular culture being made as if there were no women in the audience (The example that comes to mind is Benny Hill).
I had a pushme-pullyou feeling about looking at all those brightly coloured images of vulvas. (vulvae? I don't even know the proper plural word, whereas I know for sure how to say two penises). I couldn't actually look at them at first - my eyes kept slipping off, embarrassed. And then seeing them in terms of their decorative style rather than what they represent. I have no problem looking at Judy Chicago's cartoon-like painting of an erect penis in her 'Bigamy' car hood. Found it quite friendly, even. Why is it that a psychedelic cartoon of a penis suggests a friendly tease about potency, while the same treatment of a vulva suggests something two-dimensional and pretty. There - that is the problem in a nutshell - my brain is prejudging before I have a chance to have a say.
Artistically, this simplified brightly coloured style doesn't really add to the viewers experience or understanding, and only really works for me when she has something to say. And some of her work doesn't affect me in the way it was apparently intended. The impact of her 'Menstruation' for example (mild disgust) compares poorly with the resonance of 'linen cupboard' - an image of a woman literally caged by the shelves of a domestic cupboard - by a student of hers at a Womenspace exhibition. Perhaps it would have been more effective at the time, when presumably the idea of menstrual blood was more taboo, and may have alerted some of the audience to the discrepancy between real women and the cultural image of 'woman'.
Sunday, 8 June 2014
Choosing one artist out of ten
For Stage Two I have to choose one of the ten artists. I've been finding this rather difficult. I was hoping and expecting that as I went through them there would be one who stayed with me, and the choice would be easy. But it is not - they all have something unique and powerful about them.
Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh - pretty surface patterns and reliefs, and I could certainly relate to the celtic imagery and attractive variety of materials.
Impressive that she influenced Klimt.
Reading about her work led me to drawing these in my sketchbook - a lady and the beginning of a design for a blind.
I want to see her work in person. However, I didn't feel it related to me very closely. And I wonder if I would end up studying how women artists have been ignored rather than her work.
Leon Bakst - I loved the creativity, the colours, and the sensuality of his costumes and sketches. I could enjoy doing something with this.
I hadn't heard of him before, even though I trained at the Ballet Rambert school and we revered Diaghilev and Nijinski. I wanted to find out more about what came before so that I could judge what a difference he made. It was an exciting time of change in Europe.
He clearly had a huge influence on 20th century fashion and decor, and I would like to have more depth of knowledge about that.
Ethel Mairet - I don't know what to think about her.
I couldn't find many photos of her actual weaving on the internet, and the ones I saw were brown and appeared simple and not very beautiful or interesting to me. She was a pioneer of hand weaving and vegetable dye crafts, both of which I find interesting and wonderful, but perhaps not the extent that I want to do a lot of it myself. Studying her would give me more insight into crafts in this country.
Anni Albers - Bauhaus is one of those names that people speak with respect, and obviously continues to influence many designers and architects. The political influences on it would be good to go into more, and the work of Joseph Albers on colour. Again I ended up getting wound up in the feminist angle - she was excluded from fine art training because she was female. And where did appreciation for her work go?
Lucienne Day - I can see that she has influenced everything that came after her. But these prints leave me a bit cold. I could work on this, and on the Festival of Britain, but I don't think I could get into it very easily.
Magdalena Abakanowicz - This artist's work was the first on the list to really resonate with me. I can feel what she is expressing, and when I looked into the neo-expressionist movement she appears to be part of, the other names were often artists who I had admired already - Gerard Richter, Frank Auerbach. The tactile visceral nature of what she makes, and the repetitive references to humanity en masse appeals directly to my sensations.
I didn't do anything directly in my daily sketchbook while looking at her work, and thought that she had not really inspired me, until I realised that I had in fact created a whole new 'theme book' exploring the use of rough natural materials to express a strong feeling of belonging!
Zandra Rhodes - I did not find her prints or clothes very inspiring. Not sure why, because they are exciting, colourful, and original, and clearly very successful commercially. When I looked closer I could see that she pays great attention to detail, and that she appears to have a great deal of fun. Which isn't me at all! I like a bit more meaningfulness. And the detail stuff doesn't come naturally to me. I was not sure what movement she was part of, and then thought it must be about the sixties and the changes they brought. But then there were other people who were earlier in that change weren't there - Mary Quant?
Judy Chicago - This is a drawing I made BEFORE I researched her work. And another afterwards.
Judy Chicago's most famous work of art 'The Dinner Party', is a monument to the awesomeness of women through the ages. Not the 'contribution' or 'strengths' or whatever, but genuinely overwhelming with the sheer number of amazing woman in history who have changed our world.
While I was reading about her and her work, I was thinking that I could really enjoy exploring my angry woman side by choosing Judy Chicago. The politics of this movement and the protest movement are areas I would like to go into more deeply because they have formed me, but I never have. My fundamental theme of the masks we make to hide our inner selves has a lot to do with the bits of me that are surprising or not welcome because I am a woman.
I like the way bright tapestries make the work imposing and important. Like a poster but less ephemeral.
I'm not so sure about getting other people to do the craft of it. And the aesthetics of her work are much less what generally appeals to me. I prefer more texture and 3 dimensions. Her work looks very flat and unnatural.
Issay Miyake - All about innovative use of materials, 'one piece of cloth' exciting, interesting, not just pleats but all sorts of new things to do with one piece of cloth, and collaboration with industry, very much in the mode of Thomas Heatherington. Lots to discover. I loved the manipulating fabric section of the last OCA Textiles course I did, and wanted more time to do more. Perhaps I should. But the industrial and commercial aspects put me off a bit. But I don't have to go that way.
Tracey Emin - I have done some exploring before about Tracey Emin (not as part of the course), and her work appeals to me a lot because of the quality of realness about what she's expressing. And the wonderful looseness of her drawing.
Tracey Emin Exorcism of tte Last Painting I Ever Made (detail) 1996
She's in the papers at the moment because of Saatchi putting the unmade bed up for sale.
I was interested to read about how she locked herself in a studio for 24 hours with hundreds of canvasses to discover her personal painting style. Perhaps I should give that a go. I've been thinking a little about which course I would do after this. I had been thinking printing, because I have a lot to learn about that, but in fact, painting appeals more. Seems freer and more expressive to me. More direct on the paper.
Who I chose:
I wrote that title without actually having chosen yet!
What I'm thinking is that I want the surface shimmer of Mackintosh, the physicality and colours of Bakst, the texture and visceralness (viscerality?) of Abakanowicz, the feminism of Chicago and the freeness of line and honesty of Emin. OK?!
I'm saying I don't want to exclude some of them by choosing one. But I can go back to the others later if I want.
The inner me is giving me lots of feminist images this week, and awareness of how negative my personal feelings are about being a woman, so I'm going to choose Judy Chicago and associated politics for stage 2.
Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh - pretty surface patterns and reliefs, and I could certainly relate to the celtic imagery and attractive variety of materials.Impressive that she influenced Klimt.
Reading about her work led me to drawing these in my sketchbook - a lady and the beginning of a design for a blind.
I want to see her work in person. However, I didn't feel it related to me very closely. And I wonder if I would end up studying how women artists have been ignored rather than her work.
 |
| My imagination going overtime on Bakst |
Leon Bakst - I loved the creativity, the colours, and the sensuality of his costumes and sketches. I could enjoy doing something with this.
I hadn't heard of him before, even though I trained at the Ballet Rambert school and we revered Diaghilev and Nijinski. I wanted to find out more about what came before so that I could judge what a difference he made. It was an exciting time of change in Europe.
He clearly had a huge influence on 20th century fashion and decor, and I would like to have more depth of knowledge about that.
Ethel Mairet - I don't know what to think about her.
I couldn't find many photos of her actual weaving on the internet, and the ones I saw were brown and appeared simple and not very beautiful or interesting to me. She was a pioneer of hand weaving and vegetable dye crafts, both of which I find interesting and wonderful, but perhaps not the extent that I want to do a lot of it myself. Studying her would give me more insight into crafts in this country.
Anni Albers - Bauhaus is one of those names that people speak with respect, and obviously continues to influence many designers and architects. The political influences on it would be good to go into more, and the work of Joseph Albers on colour. Again I ended up getting wound up in the feminist angle - she was excluded from fine art training because she was female. And where did appreciation for her work go?
Lucienne Day - I can see that she has influenced everything that came after her. But these prints leave me a bit cold. I could work on this, and on the Festival of Britain, but I don't think I could get into it very easily.
Magdalena Abakanowicz - This artist's work was the first on the list to really resonate with me. I can feel what she is expressing, and when I looked into the neo-expressionist movement she appears to be part of, the other names were often artists who I had admired already - Gerard Richter, Frank Auerbach. The tactile visceral nature of what she makes, and the repetitive references to humanity en masse appeals directly to my sensations.
 |
| Sketchbook work in my 'roots' theme book, using sisal and burlap |
Zandra Rhodes - I did not find her prints or clothes very inspiring. Not sure why, because they are exciting, colourful, and original, and clearly very successful commercially. When I looked closer I could see that she pays great attention to detail, and that she appears to have a great deal of fun. Which isn't me at all! I like a bit more meaningfulness. And the detail stuff doesn't come naturally to me. I was not sure what movement she was part of, and then thought it must be about the sixties and the changes they brought. But then there were other people who were earlier in that change weren't there - Mary Quant?
Judy Chicago - This is a drawing I made BEFORE I researched her work. And another afterwards.
 |
| Feminist themes are part of what makes me me This one came from exploring Fortuny and Paul Poiret shapes, leading to a further elaboration of an idea I have about our attitude to excess fat. |
 |
| Sketchbook work after reading about Judy Chicago Bright artificial colour and less attempt at realism |
Judy Chicago's most famous work of art 'The Dinner Party', is a monument to the awesomeness of women through the ages. Not the 'contribution' or 'strengths' or whatever, but genuinely overwhelming with the sheer number of amazing woman in history who have changed our world.
While I was reading about her and her work, I was thinking that I could really enjoy exploring my angry woman side by choosing Judy Chicago. The politics of this movement and the protest movement are areas I would like to go into more deeply because they have formed me, but I never have. My fundamental theme of the masks we make to hide our inner selves has a lot to do with the bits of me that are surprising or not welcome because I am a woman.
I like the way bright tapestries make the work imposing and important. Like a poster but less ephemeral.
I'm not so sure about getting other people to do the craft of it. And the aesthetics of her work are much less what generally appeals to me. I prefer more texture and 3 dimensions. Her work looks very flat and unnatural.
Issay Miyake - All about innovative use of materials, 'one piece of cloth' exciting, interesting, not just pleats but all sorts of new things to do with one piece of cloth, and collaboration with industry, very much in the mode of Thomas Heatherington. Lots to discover. I loved the manipulating fabric section of the last OCA Textiles course I did, and wanted more time to do more. Perhaps I should. But the industrial and commercial aspects put me off a bit. But I don't have to go that way.
Tracey Emin - I have done some exploring before about Tracey Emin (not as part of the course), and her work appeals to me a lot because of the quality of realness about what she's expressing. And the wonderful looseness of her drawing.
Tracey Emin Exorcism of tte Last Painting I Ever Made (detail) 1996
 |
| Sketchbook work after reading about Tracey Emin |
She's in the papers at the moment because of Saatchi putting the unmade bed up for sale.
I was interested to read about how she locked herself in a studio for 24 hours with hundreds of canvasses to discover her personal painting style. Perhaps I should give that a go. I've been thinking a little about which course I would do after this. I had been thinking printing, because I have a lot to learn about that, but in fact, painting appeals more. Seems freer and more expressive to me. More direct on the paper.
Who I chose:
I wrote that title without actually having chosen yet!
What I'm thinking is that I want the surface shimmer of Mackintosh, the physicality and colours of Bakst, the texture and visceralness (viscerality?) of Abakanowicz, the feminism of Chicago and the freeness of line and honesty of Emin. OK?!
I'm saying I don't want to exclude some of them by choosing one. But I can go back to the others later if I want.
The inner me is giving me lots of feminist images this week, and awareness of how negative my personal feelings are about being a woman, so I'm going to choose Judy Chicago and associated politics for stage 2.
 |
| Sketchbook work inspired by Judy Chicago and Tracey Emin |
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