Hello Hello

Well, I guess this is the first post of the year over here. Been awhile...but I guess that's what's sort of appealing about blogging in the first place...picking up and leaving when and where you can...

Grad school has been a blur of emotions, tensions, egos (mostly deflating), and struggle, some good and some bad, most of them necessary, but often a bit soul-crushing...It's like finally lifting your head out of the sand to feel the world better, then desperately wanting to sink it back in only to find the sand is now glass.

I'm sure I'll feel differently once I'm distanced from the day to day experience of it, and when I look back at the people I've met, and the knowledge(s) I've both gained and problematized (hopefully, anyway) I'll think it worth it in the end (I just hope for the end to come real quicktimes). Its just hard to see clearly when you're too close, I guess.

At any rate, the point of this blog was not to indulge so much in my grad school anxiety as much as it was to send out love on International Women's Day. I've spent this weekend attending conferences, alternating between art collaborations and feminist theories of the state. I got to spend my Women's Day weekend hearing Gita Sen from DAWN speak, and put out the call for a feminist interrogation/action in regards to the financial crisis (of which so far have been few) as well as a plethora of intelligent, relevant and heartfelt discussions on welfare, compensation, and the interlocking oppressions that gender and race and class bring into this world...and here from a perspective of hope.

To Hope. Everyday.

Dry Spell

I recently attended the opening of Sau Wai Tai's show at the Women's Art Resource Centre. Such a show, which demonstrates a feminist ethic applied to interlinking environmental and social justice issues, takes art not for its aesthetic but its potential to demonstrate, to involve the masses by taking them past speculating on a visual culture made only for their living room walls. Sau Wai Tai's exhibition "Dry Spell" deals specifically with the water crisis and allows the viewer to make the connections between the commodification/desecration of water resources to the trafficking of women caught in development paradigms.

The press release below:

"Sau Wai Tai

May 24 - June 21, 2008


Dry Spell presents Toronto artist, Sau Wai Tai¹s mixed media investigation into climate change. While floods and hurricanes command the media¹s attention as effects of global warming, severe and intensifying droughts have been largely un-reported even as the percentage of land affected has substantially increased over the last decade. Privatization of water by bottling industries, and the prioritizing of industrial needs, aggregate the problem for communities with little political/economic power. Dry Spell highlights environmental injustices against the global South with special attention to the ordeal of women. Many have suffered and perished as they tried to bring home water and feed their families. In the gallery, the artist constructs a drying, cracking Œpaddy field¹ with gradually dying seedlings. Also in the gallery lie four locked 80 litre water boxes. At the Third World Water Forum, it was said that 80 litres of water per person, per day are necessary to maintain a reasonable standard of life. Text etched onto the boxes references uses such as pop and bottled water, toilets and urban etiquette, industry and agricultural processes etc. On the floor lie scattered bottles of water containing submerged pictures of women of colour consumed/to be consumed and discarded away. A dim image with native women from Mother Earth Water Walk walking around the Great Lakes to reclaim sacred water is projected onto a gallery wall.

Bio:
Sau Wai is a cultural hybrid living and working in Toronto: She was made in Hong Kong, did her tertiary education in Australia and then worked with various non-government organizations after she returned from her studies, including relief and development works in Asian countries. Realizing the importance of how the environment plays upon the well being of people living in the margins, especially women, she came to Toronto to earn a Masters degree in environmental studies. It is thus natural for her work to cross borders and to interweave dialogue about the environment, gender, class and race to highlight connections in a perceived fragmented world. She also embraces a critical understanding of humanities role in manufacturing the environmental crises and interprets the word "environment" to include the implications of the interplay between political, social, cultural and
economical global elements."

A Brief Lesson in Art History

Found via Feministing:

Women Artists Win

It's a discussion of how Linda Nochlin eventually dealt with her own essay-question "Where are all the great women artists" and the history that has come out/been marginalized/was there all along about women in art, both under the rigid academic sense (great masterpiece paintings) as well as in ways/techniques/practices in which women were made to be forgotten.

I never realized either, that Artimesia Gentleschi wasn't always part of the art history canon. I remember, waaaay back when, learning about her in my later high school art classes, and thinking, "Well, at least there's one woman in there". The thought "I bet there are more..." had always lingered in the back of my mind as well...

All criticisms aside of the tokenism aside, my high school art teacher, in teaching cannonical western art, always did try to spend a great deal of time on the few women artists in the books. I remember videos and lengthy presentations (including my own on Frida Khalo) as well as test questions focusing on Gentileschi, Vigee-Lebrun, Mary Cassat, Khalo, Berthe Merisot and so on...I guess she wanted to make sure that in this all-girl high school of ours, that we could see a little of ourselves in the curriculum.

(My drama teacher was really really good for this too.)

Big Big Sky...

I'm Glad Your Boobs Are Fine But...

Ummmm.....what???

Seriously?

The world needs better satire...

Art Progress Report

Ah, some pictures.

Also, clearly I have lied about keeping these posts short and readable. Whoops.

Right now I'm almost finished with the lithography element of the project. I've done lithographic editions of the elderly women (nine so far--but I'll be adding another three or four to the project in January) after which I will try to learn screen-printing in like ONE DAY and print their costumes (on separate pieces of paper to be either collaged or chine colled in some manner or the other).

Of course I should be doing the research for an essay right now instead of posting. But I figure that since this project is school-related, it's not too horrible of a distraction. Right? Fack, I'm totally the cause of all my own stress...

Here we go:

This is one of the litho presses we use at school. I totally own litho press #1. It's my favourite, and I'm superstitious so its the only one I use.



Meet some of my ladies:



This is Wonder Woman and Snow White, getting all ready to be printed. I should mention that in this project I did not reference any actresses who may have actually portrayed some of my figures...I am not interested in reproducing those faces as much as I was interested in aging the characters themselves...So don't expect Wonderwoman or Xena to look like Linda Carter or Lucy Lawless in their 80s. That isn't the point itself of this project.

Moving on...

Prints Galore!


In the tatami natural paper, I've made editions of ten of each lady, which will remain untouched as a lithograph. I've also made editions of five on this brown linen wrapper paper over which I will screen some text under each figure as well as collage on their costumes. Yep, that's the plan, anyway.


Snow White.


Wonder Woman.

Moving on...


Xena, Warrior Princess and Princess Jasmine. I had done some nice tonal work on Princess Jasmine, that I ended up over-etching, which I am totally disappointed about. At the point that I was working on this stone, I was feeling overwhelmed by a seeming lack of time so I didn't try to counter-etch and redraw (which I would have to do later with another stone anyway), which I now regret, as I have no intention of "whitewashing" these characters, but I think what I will do, when all twelve women are completed in January, is go back in and give some colour to every woman with some hand tinting. I'll either go with a pochoir or pastel technique or maybe some watercolour. I'm going to have to test how those mediums will work out with my paper first though.




Princess Jasmine


Xena, Warrior Princess.

A new stone, a new set of drawings...



Introducing Storm, Vixen and Pocahontas:



Once again, due to using a pencil that wasn't greasy enough, when I went to do a second etch, all the skin colour I did came right off. What a horrible limitation of an artist; who can't portray colours of skin! Bullshit! What a weird way for racism and art techique to collide. Calling myself on my own bullshit--this having happened before with attempts with tusches and cross-hatching--I decided to take a step-back, counter-etch, redraw and carefully etch yet again. There was no way I was gonna let this mistake go uncorrected.

So here I go again...


Time for a brand new etching...


And now, to introduce Max Gueverra (Dark Angel) and Foxy Brown:

Yes...I've been double-stoning...




Dark Angel


Foxy Brown.

I'll be printing off these two stones over the next couple of days, barring me running out of paper, anyway. The second etches on the last two stones seem to have come out okay so far, and my images look pretty stable, so I'm hoping for the best.

Because I've had some issues with the etching of skin colour (recently and even in past projects) I've also been thinking about how fucked-up it is that many of today's notions of race are predicated on skin colour, making it so monolithic with no nuances. Such an obvious observation, yes I know. But I can't help think that notions of "people of colour" is that...colour and not colours, not to mention all the politics, history and social practices that we attach to this notion...What scares me about this project is the potential for merely reproducing hegemonic notions about race, gender and age and how freaking easy it would be to do so...and I wonder for myself, how many people would really care to notice if all I did do was re-produce and not venture into something critical...

Art Progess Report:Army of Age (Tentative Title)

It's my last year at York as an undergrad, and also potentially my last chance working in a print studio for an unknown time. So I've decided to document my process this year, as I work on my art projects, which are completely informed by what I learn in the Women's Studies portion of my degree.

Any other authors on this site should feel free to do the same =)

I'll try to do this in small-ish posts so they are readable and not too overwhelming. So I'll start with my artist proposal in this post, that I had to submit earlier this year.

Taking inspiration from pop culture images of women such as superheroes, fairy-tale heroines, villains and other icons, this semester I wish to explore both the invisibility of aging women in visual mass media, and the direct link to youth and sexual appeal that these iconic women of strength, like Wonder Woman and Xena, Warrior Princess must maintain for their popularity. What I would like to do then, is to dedicate my time in next few months, re-drawing these women, the Supergirls and Catwomen, in the image of my (or anyone’s) grandmother. I want to see what happens to the vitality of these sexy crime-fighters, fairy tale princesses and vengeance-seekers when I age them to about eighty years old. What becomes of their power when their youthful appeal slips away as they age like the rest of us? What becomes of their costumes, designed more to catch the eye than to meet the practical requirements of their work? Do these characters become ridiculous when they age? If yes, then why is that so?
It seems to me that we are surrounded by a cultural climate that does not like to see women age. We praise actresses and pop stars, as they get older, for their ability to keep approximating youthfulness. As well, actions that are seen as liberating in our youth become silly in old age. It seems like women’s strength, even in positive pop cultural images remains attached to the way women look, and the way that they look must always be appealing. What I would like to do then, is to take various well known characters from comic books (Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Sailor Moon), t.v./film (Foxy Brown, Charlie’s Angels, Buffy, Xena), fairy tales/legends (Cinderella, Snow White, Pocahontas) and so on and make various series of lithographic portraits of themselves as the elderly women of our society. I am interested also in how their stories must change as I age them. Will Snow White become the Wicked Step-Mother she spent her youth fleeing from? Will anyone want to see Wonder Woman in her halter-top costume when she is eighty years old? Will these new images I create be able to maintain any element of these women’s past feisty-ness?
I plan to print multiple images of these elderly women and superimpose their costumes through the stenciling process of pochoir. I would like to find a way to work some text, perhaps the continuing saga of these women’s lives into the work, though I am not quite sure yet how I will do so. Currently, I am reading Barbara G. Walker’s The Crone: Woman of Age, Wisdom, and Power in order to work out the direction I may want to take their stories. As well, I will be conducting further research into the stories and ideologies that already exist around these characters. I want to make large and varied editions of my elderly heroines and fantasy figures so when they are displayed, not only do they overtake the viewer’s visual plane, these older women are no longer rendered invisible.

Women in Film

In August, I posted a video in which famous paintings of women morphed together. Well, thanks to a rare lazy day spent browsing, and of course,
Jezebel, where I found this, I have come across a second one, by the same guy, which now uses the faces of Hollywood femmes, past and present.

Many of the issues from the original video stay intact during this one. In fact, the few women of colour who appear in this short seem to have their skin colour completely washed out in the black and white photos used, which makes them morph/assimilate together with the white actresses with a lot more ease.

Hmmmm.

Cool technology, but unless these videos are intended to highlight the issues of the oppressive master narratives of the world, very creepy indeed.

How Do You Live In The Big City?

I was just noticing the other day things I kinda do out of habit.

For example, if it's late at night and I'm on my way home on the bus, a few stops before mine I'll take my keys out of my bag and loop them through my fingers. I tell myself, and most other people that ask me why I'm doing this, that it is so I don't have to stand in darkness in front of my door fumbling desparately for my keys. But I also know that in the event of an attack that keys to the eyeball is a great way of saying "Don't Fucking Touch Me."

Further, if its really really late, when I get off the bus, I will also ring up the boy on my cellphone, and talk to him until I enter my apartment and lock the door. (After which, I settle down by spending mindless hours on them internets...)

I noticed the other day, too that when the pizza guy was dropping off my order and attempting to make small talk as I fumbled with my credit card, that when he asked me if I lived here alone, that I automatically said, "No, my boyfriend lives here too." In fact, I usually tell male strangers, who either deliver me pizza or are hooking up my internet connection, when they inquire about my living arrangements that I live with a boyfriend. Though I don't make a point of saying so if they do not ask.

And of course, the boy doesn't live with me. I live alone. And most of the time, this is a fact I proudly admit to. No roommates with the need to have clean dishes at all times for this witch. No rent collecting from people who haven't been home for a week for me, no sir-ee.

But I just find it weird that I have those automatic defenses, when I've never actually had the experience of being attacked, nor have the cablemen ever been threatening or menacing at all. And despite reported increases (or maybe its just increases in reports...I dunno) in gun violence in Toronto, I do not feel like I am unsafe in my city. I love this city, and I love that I live alone and independant in it, though I am certainly not lonely or without community.

It's not like I haven't experienced the pitfalls of cat-calling and other horribly sexist behaviours. I served in a dirty sports bar for three years; I've jammed my fair share of elbows in greasy drunken necks belonging to bodies that just tried to rub their sweaty balls on my leg as I pass by with a tray of beer. Yes, I'm still bitter.

Am I just being another paranoid white woman in the city? These habits of mine, they are not particularly conscious. They just happen automatically during certain situations. I don't even remember when I started to do most of them. To be honest, my own personal city-safety is not really on my mind all that much. It is a much bigger concern to both my parents and the boy then it is to me.

Am I just socially conditioned to behave in matters of (attempted) self preservation as a woman, then? Is this how women grow up in cities? I mean, the boy calls me when he's walking home late by himself sometimes, but he doesn't prep his keys, and no one really ever asks him if he lives alone when the guy from Rogers comes over.

Maybe I just watch too many episodes of Cold Case.

Women In Art.

Given my double majors at York, it seems appropriate to post this youtube video.



I've stolen it from my friend's livejournal, reshpectobiggle. When I first saw it, I thought it was kind of creepy how over the years of Western art, that all these images of women could morph so easily into each other. I guess that's partly what they mean when they throw around that ubiquitous buzzword "hegemony" in university classes.

As reshpectobiggle also pointed out when she originally posted this, how many of these paintings(many of them deemed canonical)were done by women? My powers of identity not being that great (hey, I'm a studio major, not a history one)I thought I recognized a Mary Cassatt in there. But if my experiences in art history classes serve my memory correctly, I'm pretty sure the majority of the work in this collection is done by old white guys. I definitely thought I saw a Matisse in there. MAYBE there was a Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun in there too, but I would have enjoyed seeing a few Frida Kahlos. A couple of Audrey Kawasakis would have definitely charged up those passive gazes, that's for sure.

Ah, the powers of morphing technologies.