Feminist Art Movement

The Feminist Art Movement

Female artists were not acknowledged before this movement began, their experiences as artists were ignored in addition to male artists and they called for a revolution. They created a group (WAR), women arts in revolution, because the male artists would not protest on behalf of the women. WAR began protesting against galleries for not exhibiting their work because it was all male based art and the women were not aloud to train as artists or exhibit their work. They demanded that female art be considered into exhibitions and studies from all cultures and periods. In 1971 a contemporary art critique named Linda Nochlin wrote an Article called Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? - (Web Link To Article) she writes "Why have there been no great women artists?" The question tolls reproachfully in the background of most discussions of the so-called woman problem. But like so many other so-called questions involved in the feminist "controversy," it falsifies the nature of the issue at the same time that it insidiously supplies its own answer: "There are no great women artists because women are incapable of greatness."
The assumptions behind such a question are varied in range and sophistication, running anywhere from "scientifically proven" demonstrations of the inability of human beings with wombs rather than penises to create anything significant, to relatively open minded wonderment that women, despite so many years of near equality and after all, a lot of men have had their disadvantages too have still not achieved anything of exceptional significance in the visual arts." 
I enjoyed reading this article because I found it interesting how things have changed for female artists they were deemed inferior for their art and general existence because they were women although still human. Some of the greatest artists have been female and I think accepting all types of art is important because women have experiences that men will never understand and vice versa. But because they are female their work was ignored.

Guerilla Girls

Guerrilla Girls!

Guerrilla girls! -(Link to website) "We're a bunch of anonymous females who take the names of dead women artists as pseudonyms and appear in public wearing gorilla masks. We have produced posters, stickers, books, printed projects, and actions that expose sexism and racism in politics, the art world, film and the culture at large. We use humor to convey information, provoke discussion, and show that feminists can be funny. We wear gorilla masks to focus on the issues rather than our personalities. Dubbing ourselves the conscience of culture, we declare ourselves feminist counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger. Our work has been passed around the world by kindred spirits who we are proud to have as supporters. It has also appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Bitch and Bust; on TV and radio, including NPR,, the BBC and CBC; and in countless art and feminist texts. The mystery surrounding our identities has attracted attention. We could be anyone; we are everywhere."The Guerrilla Girls Website.


I found the guerrilla girls while i was researching Lynn Hershman Leeson and was really interested in finding out more about them by visiting their website. They fight for female artists rights also known as feminists and how the feminist art revolution changed art for women, however they still continue to fight. They are just a rally strong female anonymous group who are really passionate about issues regarding female artists. 

Lynn Hershman Leeson

T.V Legs 

Lynn Hersman Leeson

Lynn Hersman Leeson -(Link to website) is a multimedia artist working in film, photography, installations and video. I looked up her website and found that she works a lot with female identity and the issues that come with it and the relationship we have have with technology and privacy in the era of surveillance. I found her work interesting because of what she investigates in her work. One of the series she has created is "Phantom Limbs" which is the merge of female bodies with technical limbs and features. She incorporates T.vs, cameras and lenses giving it a very dehumanising effect. These black and white photomontages express her feelings towards how much we rely on technology and media and how we are losing ourselves to the advance of technology, It invades our lives psychologically and physically. using this technique of photomontage and the idea of the invasion of technology and the effect it has on us creates quite disturbing images and cyborg figures.  I really like her work but this is particularly my favourites pieces of work she's done by attacking he media and technology in a way that shows how dehumanising it is and the effect media and technology is starting to have on us. It's a complex message which she has done really well and a a really creative way of expressing her concerns with the future and constant advancing of technology and power the media has over us.  

Woman art revolution

women art revolution By Lynn Hersman

Identity

Who am I?

Photograph By Lynn Hersman Leeson 

Identity is what the person is, who am i? is what people ask themselves through time and each person creates their own identities making each of us different from the other. identity involves inside and outside, personal and social who we are socially creates an identity. I was reading a book called "Understanding Identity" by Kath Woodward which has helped me understand a lot about identity and social identity, Ervin Goffman is mentioned in the book. I researched him and found his book "Presentation of the self in everyday life" and he talks a lot about social identity. 

"Understanding Identity" talks about how understanding identity can lead to understanding the social and how we present ourselves to others. 

"identity offers a way of thinking about the links between the personal and the social..." (page vii)

I found this quite interesting because identity is closely related to the social, social identity, and how the media contributes to our identity. we see it on T.V and magazines, what makeup to buy or clothes to wear which shape us into creating an identity. However this is how the media and the social wants us to look a certain way when our identity should be a reflection of the self rather then copying something out of a magazine. so Identity can be misleading and not be an actual representation of the person as their identity may not be an honest reflection of the person.

We are also very protective of our identities, even obsessive like those who see faults in their image and go as far as cosmetic surgery to create a new face or body the way they imagine themselves to look.for instance people want to take control of their bodies by have the perfect figure and features "....just as, the slim athletic body may be used o signify success and an attractive identity, the impaired body may be represented as an indicator of failed identity..." (page 124)

There is a lot of pressure from the media about how men and women should look, seeing these tiny skinny women and strong athletic men can make people feel like they don't look right and see themselves as imperfect. The pressure of looking a certain way is broadcasted to people through the media and celerities, how they are criticised for not having the perfect "bikini body". However they go under tremendous stress to look their best because they are in the public eye and people look up to them. But they are not real they are trained and dieted to look how the media wants them to. For example this magazine is advertising how to look perfect by putting Rihanna on the front cover and revealing her secrets to a perfect body because it is desirable to how woman want to look. Identity is a hard thing to accept when you want to look a certain way and when your putting pressure on yourself by listening to the media and magazines it can become an obsession, however it is peoples right to choose how they want to look and if they want to be guided by the media then that's their choice, that is who they are. 

Postmodernism

By Richard Appignanesi & Chris Garratt
With Ziauddin Sarder
&
Patrick Curry

Postmodernism

I took out this book from the library to help me out on understanding postmodernism better. It explains the roots of Postmodernism over the last 100 years of art, History, Politics and Philosophy. I have found this book to be really helpful as it also covers a bit of modernism. 

The book is a graphic guide which makes it a lot easier to read and help with some of the understanding of Postmodernism. The book defines postmodernism by saying "What do you mean Postmodern? The confusion is advertised by the "post" prefixed to "modern". Postmodernism identifies itself by something it isn't. it isn't modern anymore.." 

It also explains it by defining the actual word "... latin origin of modern, modo, "just now". Postmodern therefore literally means "after just now"." so what i understood from that is it's not just now its after just now so it isn't modern it is after modern, the future. 

It also talks about "machine aesthetic" "...the role of abstraction in human life and an emphasis on machine-like, undecorated flat surfaces.Their aim was to form a universally applicable "modern style", reproducible anywhere, transcending all national cultures." This is a postmodern idea as it is talking about a machine based future rather then human so that everything can be reproduced through machine. 

Andy Warhol is also mentioned in the book because he turned mechanical reproduction into art representing that the only real human touch in his work is applied colour. everything else is done through printing onto canvas much like how a machine works.