Hi Isabel,
I agree with you when you say "This particular work just strikes me as
sad, and not at all emancipatory."
> Just a thought regarding the idea of the female body as a product in
this context:
>this may be grossly generalizing (please correct if wrong) but I've
noticed before
>that female artists who show themselves naked in their work almost
always have
>conventionally beautiful bodies.
You say "I've noticed before that female artists who show themselves
naked in their work almost always have conventionally beautiful bodies",
This does seem to support my argument that women's bodies are more
readily accepted in mainstream culture if they conform to its ideals of
what a female body is meant to look like. Thus, she becomes part of a
cultural commodity - Moire's body is a product to sell as art and as
part of a larger, systemic objectification of woman and this can extend
to men as well. This was well critiqued recently, by Susan Bordo in
'Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body' when she
looked at the historical and current representation of women in history
and in popular culture, offering a deep insight into western culture's
objectification of women's bodies, from a male classical gaze right up
to the neoliberal gaze in contemporary culture.
A recent example of how women have trouble in mainstream culture when
not fitting into conventional tropes of how women are supposed be, and
indeed, should look like, is the incident with Mary Beard, after she was
on the panel of Question Time on the BBC." My appearance on Question
Time prompted a web post that has in the last few days discussed my
pubic hair (do I brush the floor with it), whether I need rogering (that
comment was taken down, as was the speculation about the capaciousness
of my vagina, and the plan to plant a d*** in my mouth)," writes Beard.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jan/21/mary-beard-suffers-twitter-abuse
This reflects a society smothered by top-down orientated mediation,
dictated by a celebrity culture replacing critical awareness and a much
needed questioning of how things really are, where the subtle and not so
subtle domination by market interests of cultural production (at all
levels) and its vapid dialogue, denies us all access to a wider spectrum
of creative expression, especially those that engage in subjects that
conflict with the agendas of those in power. And Moire's performance has
no conflict with those in power because women's bodies are already owned
in history and in the media, and her artistic actions add to the already
disenfranchisement of not only women but also critical art on the whole.
Wishing you well.
marc
Hi,
Just a thought regarding the idea of the female body as a product in
this context: this may be grossly generalizing (please correct if
wrong) but I've noticed before that female artists who show themselves
naked in their work almost always have conventionally beautiful
bodies. perhaps this is why they feel comfortable showing them?
This particular work just strikes me as sad, and not at all emancipatory.
On 24 April 2014 11:29, marc garrett <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hi Mark,
Thanks for sharing your latest essay 'Angry women (still?)' to the
list...
I do have a some thoughts on the matter.
My first impression was on hearing about "Artist Drops
Paint-Filled Eggs From Her Vagina To Create Art" was, so what?
It's boring...
Then you posted on the list regarding your essay on the matter.
I'd say your representation of birth in your essay needs a bit
more unpacking. Because saying "child birth as the one true
creative act of humanity". Leaves us with so much unresolved and
unanswered, it's all up in the air. For instance, it would be less
ambiguous if there were examples in your text that included other
female artists ideas on the subject, with their own societal and
artistic contexts adding resonance to the questions you ask.
Moire's performance is bound within a psychological, 'passive
aggressive' desperation. It is 'not' an act of female liberation;
for her or any other women, it is an act of an individual
submitting to 'mediation' as part of the spectacle. It does not
challenge anything other than liberation, emancipation and
feminism itself.
In fact, it dis-empowers women artists and puts them in direct
competition with her. I can almost hear the many 'shallow'
curators (male & female) in the traditional realms of the so
called 'contemporary' art world - thinking to themselves - oh yes,
this will get media attention.
It is 'not' an act of female empowerment precisely because female
expression in wider society is only allowed to have presence as
celebrity or via their bodies and not their minds. Unless they
already come from a privileged background then they can be
involved in social commentary in the New Statesman or the Guardian
etc ;-)
There is no reclaiming of the female identity or female
emancipation here, or related societal liberation if it is wholly
reliant on 'female' body as a product, a commodity within a
framework of contemporary art and mainstream culture dedicated to
neo-liberalist values. It is a contradiction.
To me, it just looks like Moire is performing an art version of
Miley Cyrus's Twerking. Which I suppose is OK, but it means
nothing other than desperation to be seen in terms that only
relates to the individual's own desperate desire to be seen by
many, but is this really enough?
Wishing yo well.
marc
Hi NetBees
I know a few of you will have seen/read about**Milo Moire's
Plopegg piece for the 2014 Cologne Art Fair. I'm not sure what I
make of it, so wrote a short jumbled lot of thoughts about it (see
second link below). I was wonder what others make of her work?
http://designtaxi.com/news/365200/Artist-Drops-Paint-Filled-Eggs-From-Her-Vagina-To-Create-Art
http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=1094
Cheers all,
Mark
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