Experience, Create, Review, Repeat

As a direct result of researching the work of Sarah Lucas, I came across the feminist author Andrea Dworkin.  I found that Lucas was influenced by the writings of Dworkin who was an outspoken critic of misogynistic attitudes towards women, specifically pornography.

Reading this work has been another stage in the progression of my journey into this field of research.  It’s pretty heavy going but it’s becoming clear how works like this and the ideas it discusses have been so influential on particularly Lucas’s work.

As I’m reading I keep coming across bits that I can almost tick off as having been a direct reference in Lucas’s artworks.

Front Cover of Pornography, Men Possessing Women, 1989, Andrea Dworkin

Particular themes are becoming more interesting to me.

– women portrayed and widely understood to be objects for the fulfilment of male sexual desires.

– the power of naming being a masculine power

– language being a male tool and the restrictions that places on any feminine stance

At one point, a particular phrase struck a chord while I was reading Pornography….

“The two poles of her existence as a white woman are underscored:  she is boss, she is total submissive.”

It made me think about the decades of fighting for gender equality and ask myself whether I felt any real progression had ever been made.  Dworkin speaks extensively of the objectification of women and with this in mind, a particular artwork by Allen Jones came into my head; the series Hatstand, Table and Chair, 1969, the Table element of which is pictured here.

Table, 1969, Allen Jones

At the time of their creation and even now, these pieces have caused huge uproar because of their overtly misogynistic content.  They instantly intrigued me, and combined with the Dworkin quote made me want to use them somehow in my own work.

I decided that a parody of the sculpture, representing the continuing struggle of women against objectification in the modern world was an avenue I wanted to explore and so went about developing a plan for creating my own take on his sculptures.

Video of experimental work 

Having found a good sized piece of glass I needed to see how easily I would be able to support it when it rested on my back.  Not being a fibreglass mannequin means not being able to secure the glass to my shoulder blades!  By supporting the glass in order to allow me to crawl under it to then lift it gently with my back I was able to confirm that it was at least doable with some assistance setting up the photo shoot.

Although the idea of a performance/installation piece with me displayed as per Jones’s table, in an exhibition setting for audience members to view over a length of time, practicality won and photographs became more attractive a possibility.  (the glass is very heavy and difficult to maintain at the correct angle for long periods)

So now, we’re in the midst of writing the dissertation.  The interest I have been developing in addressing issues of feminism through conceptual art has had a huge influence on deciding on my research topic.  Since seeing her exhibition Situation, absolute, beach, man, rubble at the Whitechapel Gallery, my interest in the work of Sarah Lucas has increased.

She approaches several areas of feminist debate in different media throughout her portfolio.

– Objectification of women in advertising imagery as seen in Eating a Banana

– Visual representation of abusive misogynistic language through appropriation of everyday objects (Bitch)

– Direct appropriation of media imagery to accentuate the blatant misogyny inherent in western society (Seven Up)

Eating a Banana, 1990, Sarah Lucas (digital print on paper, 539x596mm)

Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lucas-eating-a-banana-p78443

Bitch, 1995, Sarah Lucas (table, melons, t-shirt, vacuum-packed smoked fish, approx 80x100x50cm)

Available at: http://www.wmagazine.com/culture/art-and-design/2013/10/sarah-lucas-whitechapel/photos/slide/3

Seven Up, 1991, Sarah Lucas (photocopy on paper, 218.5cmx312.5cm)

Available at: http://www.saatchigallery.com/aipe/sarah_lucas.htm

I love her bold, confident ways of making such unapologetic artworks.  Her subject matter is almost taboo nowadays, I think because having seen several ‘waves’ of the feminist movement, misogyny is still so prevalent.  She doesn’t shy away from that taboo but grabs it and runs right at you.

Things I like:

bold, unashamed of broaching taboo subjects

loud and in your face

so simple but straight to the point

intelligence to her argument despite the frequent brashness and simplicity

How can I go about creating artwork with similarly powerful messages?

I worry that (knowing how my brain works) I will get too deep into research and passion for the subject and end up trying to get too clever!

I guess I want to be clever without it being obvious.

I think that means actually being clever though.

I don’t think I’m clever enough!

I want to take a minute to explore in a bit more depth some of the shifts that have been happening in my work over the last few months.

The last major project I feel I developed and saw through to a complete piece of work was my ‘Ego Massage’ sculpture.

Examples of Ego Massage Project Work

In this project I was exploring ideas of elitism in the art world and an aspect of ‘look but don’t touch’ in relation to art.  Despite this being a very different subject matter to concepts of feminism, looking back, it was in this project that I really started the process of questioning.  It was at this time that I was really getting into the conceptual side of art and discovering new ways of pushing boundaries I didn’t before understand let alone feel capable of attempting to break.

Having started to become aware of new ways of pushing myself and my work I happened upon an exhibition of works by Sarah Lucas at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.

http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/about/press/sarah-lucas-situation-absolute-beach-man-rubble/

Au Naturel, 1994, Sarah Lucas (mattress, water bucket, melons, oranges, cucumber, 84x168x145cm)

Available at: http://www.saatchigallery.com/aipe/sarah_lucas.htm

That was it, crusade of feminism has begun.  Sarah Lucas is my idol and I will never look at a melon in the same way again!

With a new lust for knowledge of conceptual art and an interest in feminist issues spurred on by a growing confidence in myself both as an artist and a woman, I feel I have started to find some idea of where this new path might have started and the kind of places it might be going.

I’m tackling a feeling of confusion about my current work, how it sits with work I’ve done before and how I picture it moving forward.  Often, when I find myself in this state I find that writing my thoughts helps me to organise them somehow.

Notebook Pages

I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions about these paintings.

Where have they come from?

Where is the pursuit of this work taking me?

Is this a direction I want to follow?

I feel like, despite perhaps throwing myself into the original painting in this series as a way of padding out my current portfolio, I have found my way onto a path that could turn into something really interesting.  I guess I’m just waiting for the time when I have a better idea of what that path is and whether want to follow it.

10 PRJCT Perfection Campaign For The Unattainable

Pushing myself to work with this neon material in a different way to one which I had originally imagined has been a really interesting experienced.  Sitting in the small, dark space with nothing but the noise from the lights to listen to has encouraged me to reflect

on the material and my work in a new way.  This and other recent experiences and interactions have made me start to ask new questions about my work.

What do I want from my work?

What do I want it to achieve?  Both for me and for those that will experience it.

I think ultimately I want my work to encourage its audience to consider my subject matter in a new light somehow.

I want to be able to express my thoughts about my subject in such a way that get other people thinking about it, debating it, reflecting on it as well.  I want to be able to pose certain questions in ways that perhaps haven’t been tried before.

My current fear is that my thought patterns run into places that, particularly with my current subject matter of gender identity, can quickly become quite repellant.

I am struggling with how to work with that.

I’m not coming up with the ideas for the gratuitous shock value at all and in a lot of ways I feel that tactic is outdated anyway.

Is the shock a by-product?? Or is it something I need to harness and use?? If so, how do I do that?

A large part of the problem that I have with the repellant nature of some of the ideas I’m coming up with, is that I will often be using my own body in pretty invasive ways.  This develops a barrier of personal struggles that add a complication to my progression.  Again, this makes me question, in the same way as with the ‘shock value’, do I ignore my personal struggles and crack on regardless or do I integrate them into my work?  Are they relevant or do I put them aside?

The Labours X, Helen Chadwick, 1986

Helen Chadwick is an artist whose work I am just discovering.

Chadwick’s innovative and provocative use of a rich variety of materials, such as flesh, flowers, chocolate and fur, was hugely influential on a younger generation of British artists. Her strongly associative and visceral images were intended to question gender representation and the nature of desire.

(http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/helen-chadwick-2253)

The work shown above taken from the series Ego Geometria Sum (1983-6), shows the artist struggling under the weight of her own self image.  This was brought to mind because this is the same struggle I am trying to cope with as I work.  Do I incorporate it like Chadwick does here?