Studio Practice : Donald Trump

Studio Practice : Colliding Information

Visual Examples

I did some research into ‘binary positions’ because this is something I found really interesting in one of my lectures. This system shows pairs of related terms that are opposite in meaning. It shows how two theoretical opposites are defined, such as on and off, up and down, left and right.  Some other examples I thought about included culture and nature, reason and emotion, mind and body, public and private, society and individual and civilized and primitive. These opposites are seen to be fundamental organizers of human language and culture. It seems like one of the two opposites is more dominant than the other - this is an important concept of structuralism and I would imagine that they are fundamental to thought and language. I think this is mainly due to ‘social construction’ of identity which is about the narratives or ideologies about who we are and what we need to become. The problem is that these identifications are always changing across time and space. We are defined in relation to what we are not and this operates on the basis of differentiation, which made me ask questions like ‘what makes the position of me different to the position of others?’ Linda Nochlin is a famous art historian who produced an article in 1971 called “Why have there been no great women artists?” I read this article and noticed how straight away she explores the assumptions embedded in the title’s question. An example of this could be when she considers the nature of art with the reasons why ‘artistic genius have been reserved for male geniuses’. Da Vinci and Michel Angelo are two examples I could think of. I agree with Nochlin to some extent as history seems to have hidden female artists. This was probably due to the social and political conditions but thankfully women have been given more rights now. I agree with Nochlin as she also argues that significant barriers in society prevented women from pursuing art. In the past there were restrictions on educating women in art academies but now there aren’t as many restrictions, in schools or in the workplace. Basically, she believed that the work of female artists is historically deemed ‘the other’, considered by patriarchal institutions to have a distinctly feminine ‘domestic’ essence. Project Womanhouse was an art installation and performance space designed only for women. This was a feminist piece, running from January 30th – February 28th 1972. It was organized by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, whom were co-founders of the Cal Arts feminist art program. Both artists were also teachers, and partnered up with their students, who were encouraged to use consciousness raising techniques to generate and encourage ideas for the exhibition. For me, it would be essential to focus the attention on a wider group of people because it would be essential for a wider group of people to be able to relate to the installation. Female artists from the local community, including Faith Wilding also partnered up with Chicago and Schapiro for the exhibition, which received approximately 10,000 visitors throughout the month. The Dinner Party was another installation piece by Judy Chicago. I found this interesting because it was very a very symbolic piece about women in western civilization. Georgia O’Keeffe, Susan Anthony and Virginia Woolf were 3 of the 39 mythical and historical famous women included in this piece, which explains the 39 elaborate place settings arranged around the table. These place settings included a hand painted china plate and a napkin with an embroidered gold edge. The Dinner table was stood on the Herritage Floor which was made up of more than 2,000 white triangle shaped tiles and each one is engraved with the name of 999 women who have made a mark on history. It was first shown in 1979 and toured many venues in 6 countries, meaning that over 15 million people were able to view it. In 2007 it became permanent exhibition in New York due to it suffering from constant traveling. The Guerrilla Girls ideas contrast with Linda Nochlin’s ideas as they look at the advantages of being a female artist. They are a group of Radical Feminists who have devoted a lot of their time to fighting sexism and racism within the art world. Although the group were formed in New York in 1985 I thought they were important to look at because their mission was about bringing gender and radical inequality into focus within the arts community. I think they achieved their aim by disrupting media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions through posters, books, billboards and public appearances, discrimination and corruption were exposed, especially in politics art, film and pop culture. I learnt that the group consists of approximately 55 women, who wear Gorilla masks in public. I believe the identities of these women were concealed because issues in society, such as gender issues, matter more than the individual’s identities. Contemporary art explores the ways in which the social construction of identity often clashes with the identities formed out of lived experiences. I believe these can be both positive and negative experiences, resulting in instances where we identify and instances where we have been identified. I think both experiences are good because they can be used to fuel our practice. Contemporary artists now have a new ground level on which we can work. Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucas, Caroline Scheenman and Martha Rosler are examples of 4 contemporary artists who look at gender identity and feminism.Tracey Emin’s work is quite controversial towards societal norms in England and is best known for her personal artwork, where she looks at personal traumatic events such as rape, sexism and abortion. Her work quite clearly looks at the politics of female representation. She also produces work based on previous notions of femininity. Her work shows the collapse of her own identity and I feel like her work could be quite hard to understand as it begs for rigorous thought. However, I do like her work especially as she has used her own body as medium in self-portraits and performance pieces. I really like how she is an active participant in her artwork, and through this she lends an openness and vulnerability to her audience through emotion. Her work tackles universal ideas through her relationship to human behaviour and gender. I find it very interesting how this piece helped to redefine what a liberated woman can be. I know she influenced a whole generation of female artists, such as Marie Jacotey to explore womanhood and feminism. I also really like how her work is third-wave feminism as I’d like to think that a woman is able to define her sexuality on her own terms, without society’s influence. Emin’s work really forces the audience to focus on the real aspects of femininity through modern issues. These issues include menstruation, abortion and promiscuity, all of which are taboos in society and often lead to a women becoming stigmatised. It’s interesting especially because Emin rejects discussion of female authority in her work as she engages directly with female identity in society today. I really like Sarah Lucas’ work because she often includes puns, making it quite humorous. She also sometimes includes photography, collage and found objects such as buckets and oranges. I also find it clever how it questions conventions and highlights the absurdity of the everyday. Like Tracey Emin, it seems like Lucas is searching for a personal sense of happiness. Another of her most famous pieces is called ‘Two fried eggs and a Kebab’ and parodies the traditional still life, evoking similarities between itself and a piece called ‘Dinner party’ by Judy Chicago, another feminist. ‘Two fried eggs and a Kebab’ in 1922 has been linked to Edouard Manet’s ‘Olympia’ in 1863. Lucas’ work also seems to be an attempt to encourage female artists to become part of art history, through analytical work which mainly discusses the female body. She also appropriates masculine constructions. I feel like she attempts to dissect their nature by confronting constructions of masculinity. She does this by representing a fantastical world and playfully includes unrealistic ideals. The appropriation of masculine symbols, like the banana or ‘fried eggs’ with her, takes female work out of the feminine sphere, disrupting patriarchal power. Her work ‘The old in out’ in 1988 is also a clear reference to Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ in 1971. Her visual language empties femininity and removes her from such a clear ‘feminist art’ title but at the same time she is continuing the artistic legacy of feminist artists such as Cindy Sherman, Rachel Whiteread and Hannah Wilke. I feel like sexuality isn’t an obvious theme in her work. There seems to be a lack of association with morals, which left me at the free will of her humorous narratives.  She takes ‘sexism’ but doesn’t overtly comment on it, unlike other artists. This implies that she’s not attempting to solve the problem, she just incorporates it by exploring the moral dilemma. This means her work can be taken literal as well as conceptual, especially as her thoughts / ideas and her work is constantly building and transforming into new and exciting pieces. Like myself, it appears that Sarah Lucas is never satisfied with her final outcomes. I often like to think about and explore with every medium, until one becomes fitting. It’s most important that my work connects with the viewers, like its ‘thinking with other people’.

Describing the background

ABC News have identified 58 gender options, including Bisexual, Heterosexual, Transsexual and Homosexual. I know that ‘Bisexual’ refers to a person that is emotionally, physically or sexually attracted to both men and women. ‘Heterosexual’ on the other hand refers to a person that is emotionally, physically or sexually attracted to a person of the opposite sex. These people are also known as ‘straight’.‘Transsexual’ refers to a person who identifies as a different sex to the one they were assigned at birth. I feel like this is a psychological issue and transsexuals often wish to transform their bodies hormonally or through surgery so they can match their inner sense of body. ‘Homosexual’ is another example of a gender term. I believe this is a term used to describe an individual who is emotionally, physically or sexually attracted to somebody of the same gender. I know this term is quite stigmatizing, which is why most people would prefer to be called ‘gay’ or ‘a lesbian’ instead. This could be due to its history as it was seen as a mental illness. Thankfully society and views have changed. As I mentioned, Identity was another key term I plan to explore throughout this essay. A previous study proved that the gap between the average personality of both men and women was small. However, a more recent analysis was published in the Public Library of Science One journal, which revealed that each sex shares a distinct set of characteristics, with just 18 percent of men having a typically female set of characteristics / women having a typically male set of characteristics. I will also be researching and analyzing the 16PF5 test, which is a frequently used measure of personality. I would assume that men and women average similar scores on the personality test. I think that femininity consists of a set of attributes associated with girls. I believe these are socially constructed but are combined of biological and socially defined factors. Society often tells you what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable. Modern conceptualizations of femininity also rely on the choices made by the individual as well as the social constructions. Both male and females can have female or male features. Individuals who exhibit a combination of both masculine and feminine characteristics are considered ‘androgynous’. I would assume that this blurs gender classification to some extent. Gentleness, empathy and sensitivity are three of the main traits traditionally associated with ‘being feminine’. However, I assume that these would be influenced by many social factors and would vary depending on location and context. Along with gender/identity options, there are also many different types of feminists. These include eco feminists, Marxist feminists, cultural feminists, liberal feminists and radical feminists. Before researching the topic, I assumed that eco feminism was about a harmful split between nature and culture. Eco feminism is a movement which seeks to destroy all forms of social injustice - not just injustice against women and the environment. Eco feminists relate to the oppression and domination of women, people with a different skin colors, children and the poor to the oppression and domination of animals, land, water and air. Marxist feminists focus on investigating and explaining the ways in which women are oppressed. They believe women are usually oppressed through systems of capitalism. According to Marxist feminists, women's liberation will only be achieved when the current capitalist economy has been restructured. I know in the past, the male was seen to be the ‘’breadwinner’’ whilst the woman did the ‘’unpaid, domestic work’. Marxist feminists now continue fight for the inclusion of domestic work within the waged capitalist economy. Liberal feminists focus on the ability of a female to maintain their equality through their own actions and their own choices. They also argue that there’s still stereotypes in society which holds the false belief that women are naturally less intellectual and physically able than men. This obviously leads to discrimination towards women in education and in the workplace. Their main aim is for sexual equality through political and legal reform, instead of women’s success being blocked by the public world. Essentially, radical feminists believe that women are better than men. They like when male dominance is eliminated, in social and economic contexts. They challenge existing social norms / institutions on topics like gender roles, sexual objectification of women and raising awareness on issues such as rape and domestic violence. Early radical feminists in the 1960’s, viewed patriarchy as a “trans historical phenomenon” and I would expect this view to be the model for other views.

Introducing the theme

What do you consider to be the issues of Gender and/or Identity in Contemporary Art and Illustration, and how do artists and illustrators investigate these?

I decided to investigate the theme of ‘Gender and Identity’ because I believe these are big issues and very relevant in society today. I believe that ‘Gender’ refers to being a male or a female, considering social, cultural and biological differences. The differences between male and female are usually encouraged from an early age although today we understand the term more broadly, looking at a range of identities which do not correspond to the established ideas of male and female.I understand that ‘Identity’ refers to who or what a person or thing is. I would usually look at the characteristics which determine who or what a person or thing is. Both females and males have obvious characteristics. Some people see identity as a social construction of the self, and I know the western world assumes that we have a true self, we possess an identity that become known to us, it’s expressed through forms of representation and its recognisable by ourselves and other people. There are definitely still gender stereotypes and women are seen to be more sensitive and men more dominant. Stereotypes are a big issue in society and I will discuss these and how artists investigate these throughout this essay. ‘Feminism’ is also a topic I plan to discuss throughout this essay, looking at political movements and social groups who share a common goal. They wish to achieve social, political and economic rights for women and I think it’s important that women establish equal opportunities, especially in education and employment. Some of my favourite pieces of art are based around the idea of gender, identity or feminism and I will definitely find it interesting researching and learning about how artists investigate these issues. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about these topics in the recent lecture and I’m looking forward to developing my understanding through the essay.

Technology Lecture

GLOBALISATION
- Compression of the world through global connections and exchange of information
- Global cultural flows - world financial transactions happen 24 hours a day due to new technologies
- An information economy made possible by digital technologies such as the internet

THE INTERNET
- A decentralised networks of networks
- A digital universe
- An ocean of data
- Where information is networked and identities are constructed
- A social space where information is circulated - open and democratic as well as regulated (CCTV)
- An information economy is part of a new culture of exchanges

A new technological paradigm 1960s - 1980s
- Processing of raw material. The move from material production to information processing
- New information is generated based on combined and stored information
- New information gets embodied into services, goods and procedures
- Process is more important than the product - how the information is processed and applied

Manuel Castells, The information Age : Economy, Society and Culture
- Our societies are incredibly structured around the bipolar opposition of the net and the self (Castells, The rise of the Network society, 1996)
- The net. The network replaces the hierarchies as dominant form of social organisation
- The self. The practices of a person reaffirming their social identity and meaning in a shifting landscape - the networked universe

The digital Universe
- The world overflowing with information
- Expansion of human knowledge - a kind of cyber space of play and experimentation
- Cyberspace. A cognitive map. No fixed boundaries in space and time
- The cyber walker in the digital universe, creating mapping prints

Gender and Identity Lecture

Firstly, in partners we had to make a list of 10 characteristics - mine included fair, sensitive and gullible.

The western world assume that :
1. We have a true self
2. We possess an identity that can become known to us
3. Identity is expressed through forms of representation
4. Identity is recognizable by ourselves and by other people

Social construction of identity is about meaning making processes : narratives or ideologies about who we are and what we become. I believe it is social. Often, its not fixed or a natural state of being. Its always in a process of becoming. Identities are often created by institutions eg education.

Cultural identify is a shifting set of subject positions based on differences and then we are identifies through these positions. However, these identifications are always changing across time and space.

Examples of consciousness raising feminist art :
1. Project woman house, LA, 1972
2. The Dinner party, Judy Chicago, 1974-1979
3. Guerrilla girls

"Why has there been no great women artists?"
Is a 1971 essay by American art historian, Linda Lochlin
It is considered a pioneering essay for both feminist art history and feminist history

Linda Lochlin argued that no women have achieved artistic greatness like De Vinci and Michael Angelo. This could be due to education restrictions on women or the fact that history has hidden female artists due to social and political conditions in society at the time.

In contrast, the Guerrilla girls looked at the advantages of being a female artist - how they are positioned in relation to what they are not.

Contemporary art explores the ways in which the social construction of identity often clashes with the identities formed out of lived experiences. These can be both positive and negative experiences - instances where we identify and instances where we are identified. I could not use this to fuel my practice.

PROJECT WOMAN HOUSE
- Women only art installation and performance organised by Judy Chicago and Miriam Shapiro
- Chicago, Shapiro, their students and other female artists from the local community participated
- Students were encouraged to use consciousness raising techniques to generate the content of the exhibition
- Exclusively women

THE DINNER PARTY
- Second feminist project
- Used traditional craft techniques including pottery, patchwork and embroidery
- The artwork was collectively produced
- Place settings, entry banners caused huge amount of controversy. The museum wanted to buy the piece

GUERRILLA GIRLS
- Feminist activist artist
- Over 55 people have been members over the years and decades
- Focus on issues and away from who we might be
- Wear Gorilla masks in public, using humour and visuals to expose gender and ethnic bias as well as corruption in politics, art, film and pop culture
- Undermine the idea of a mainstream narrative by revealing the understory, the subtext, the overlooked and the unfair
- Believe that feminism should fight discrimination and supports human rights for all people and all genders

I am thinking of doing the Gender and Identity question for the essay. Over the next few weeks I will be doing more research into the above examples and I will also be developing the ideas of identity, gender, lived experiences, stigmas, social norms, patriarchy and biological essentialism.