If wishes were horses, then little girls would ride… we bind ourselves with chains of obligations, decorate our selves with symbols of the things we cherish, the very things that tie us to life and yet keep us from our frivolous dreams.
Tag: Feminism
Apricot Box
From childhood through adulthood- fairy tales, myths, and even nursery rhymes follow us about, shaping us, forming us. At an early age, we learn that beauty equals good, and ugliness equals bad. We also learn something about the narrow range that is supposed to define a woman’s safety zone.
Miss Muffet sits and minds her manners, and even then, is frightened away by a spider, while Little Jack Horner gets to stick his thumb in the middle of a pie, pull out a plum, and thinks to call himself a good boy for having done so.
Apricot Box is about women reclaiming for themselves, the ripe, fruity, fragrant, luscious parts of ourselves, and about little girls, never losing it.
Es Mi Cuerpo
Dispelling the Cinderella Myth
For all the girls growing up today:
A Pumpkin, Six White Mice,
and a Pair of Glass Slippers Just Won’t Do.
Dedicated to Mindy Bingham and Sandy Stryker.
Femme
Coast US feminist artists, revisited by key artists of the 1990’s. Exploration of vulval imageries allows me to consider female desire, seduction and discipline, and the role-liquidity of queer sexual play.
The metaphorical cultural veil of a socially/culturally formed feminine is materialized in my use of empty but sexually encoded garments (the little black velvet dress. lingerie, leather, corsetry, gloves) to stand in for the female body. A self-consciously feminist erotic is proposed, carefully controlled through allusion to the actual body, through textual ‘cunning lingua’, through acknowledgment of the seductive territories of sado-masochism, fetishism, voyeurism and exhibitionism, and through awareness of the potentially mulitiplicitous desirous nature of the gaze.
Throne for a Smart Princess
the box is turned around
the helplessness of a woman is turned around.
a throne is created
creativity and self-confidence are experienced and rewarded.
Following the idea of Grimm’s fairy tale, the princess had only one chance to get her golden ball from the depth of the well: she had to promise to share her whole life with the helper, a frog. As a smart woman she does not want to accept this type of dependence and help and so she finds a new solution to solve the problem.
Biological Baby Buggy
With my work I explore the theme of a woman’s fertility. Fertility is a complex issue and fertility is not always a G-d given right. Age and circumstances can exert enormous pressure on women to define themselves, to reach important decisions at what could be an inopportune time.
To embrace motherhood or to reject motherhood, or to gain motherhood through extreme and unusual means: are all fraught with their own assumptions and characterizations, either internally innate or imposed by external forces.
The tendency to define a woman by her ability to bear children is limiting and demeaning. A woman must be defined by her ability to live a positive and meaningful life.
My quest is to honor all women who engage in creation whatever form it might take and encourage women to feel comfort and acceptance on many paths.
Solidaridad!
Woman Thinking Outside the Box
I Can See Beyond…
I Can See Beyond the Forest and Thru the Trees Now speaks for all modern women and will hopefully in the future. We no longer are tied to aprons, but represent a significant change in our roles, as mothers, policy makers and breadwinners. In the 60’s, we were underpaid as educators and had less chance to be put into responsible position in life than our counterparts. We have come a long way in forming the framework for the future.
Sparkle of Life
Coca-Cola Box Project.
Many years ago after a long and hot morning of doing house chores, my exhausted and thirsty mother would unexpectedly rush through the door. Intrigued, I would rapidly tie my worn out shoes and head to the kitchen. There holding a bottle, as if it were the last one left in the world, was my mom. As she drank it, a smile would slowly illuminate her face. Noticing my curiosity, she pointed at the bottle and said, “This is the sparkle of life.”
In a convulsive world of dispute over territory, religion and culture, men and women face a daily struggle searching for solutions to make this planet a better one for everybody. What has for many years been missing however, is the perspective of the real sparkle of life: The Woman. Just as Coca-Cola illuminated my mother’s eyes, this world would benefit greatly by considering more seriously the ideas and propositions of the woman. So, the purpose of this project was simply to portray and honor the woman not only as the sparkle of life but as the queen of the universe.
Beginnings
…woman’s sexuality, as spectator, must undergo a constant process of transformation. She must take, as if she were a man, the phallic power of the gaze, at a woman who would attract that gaze, in order to be that woman…
An attempt at examining issues pertaining to female sexuality, sensuality, cultural attitudes and ideas are my main concerns, which include the engagement and celebration of the body.
…a journey, which is both a conscious and subconscious process, through my body prints and food spices installations. These are born out of trans-cultural experiences and transcend apparent boundaries such as the celebrations of the human form and sexuality and sensuality. Whether or not femininity results in an unconscious symbolism, I choose to work with components of a visual vocabulary to achieve works in personal content that can be read by a larger audience.
I still have to question every assumption, every reaction I have, as a result of being culturally conditioned. The expression of my sensibilities and concerns is not a politicized feminism but more of a psychic bonding to my femaleness, Amen.
Endless Beauty
My work deals with the femininity of a woman, as she struggles not only to be part of society’s work force, but also to maintain her appearance as changes are brought about through aging. Instead of the small wooden box, I have cast a larger box from wax, not only to enhance its appearance but also to give that sense of being alive. The box itself is wrapped up with skin and it is this same skin that are stacked inside the box in repetitive folds. The wrapped box together with the folded repetitive skin represents the struggles of a modern woman in the community, to which she has, to balance between society and the family, and yet maintain her >endless beauty for society.
Tight Fit
This piece of work explores the notion of restriction and objectification by juxtaposing an old-time practice of foot binding with fashionable high heeled shoes. Pain, in both historical and contemporary context, is symbolized by the shrouded shoe. Times may have changed, but certain perceptions of women remain deeply entrenched. In the past, women were obliged to have their feet bound in order to be considered beautiful and desirable by men. Having small feet was a symbol of stature and gentility. Hence, women’s feet were forcibly bound to fit into dainty, three-inch long shoes. Today, women subject themselves to the pain and discomfort of three-inch (or more!) high shoes to enhance their feminine appeal. Yet, hidden behind the glossy look is this sense of inadequacy and the desire to be looked at. Are we now considered willing participants of a game of restrictive beauty, to the point of disregarding the possible hazards by wearing heels?
Women’s Unlimited Potential
This little box reminds me of a woman in the olden day, which a woman can only do things within this little space. What is a woman identity today? Woman is no more constrained within this space. Woman is full of wisdom and Unlimited Potential.
She can transform herself in various forms.
She can express herself just like the color in the palette.
She can express her creativity just like a tree…so full of energy.
She can transcend all her cells to enliven this society.
I’m that Woman with Unlimited Potential!
Breaking Out of the Box…
Got Milk?
Liberated Women
The Price Of Beauty
My piece is a treasure box that is beautiful and appealing on the outside, but on the inside it contains the bad things about being a woman, i.e. dieting, sex, wrinkles, which in turn is the price of beauty.
Conflict
Like most domestic tools, the straight pin is usually considered a useful and innocuous object. I use thousands of them to make aggressive statements referencing handwork, domesticity and the female voice. The finished pieces are beautiful. They are also sharp and dangerous. Like the tiny pins that efficiently perform multiple household tasks, my work suggests more than what meets the eye. “Conflict” physically expresses endured emotional battles.
With my background in fiber art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, I am intrigued by the works of George Segal, Edward and Nancy Kienholz, Cathy de Moncheaux, Annette Message, Louise Nevelson, Eva Heese and Ann Hamilton. Finally, the following excerpt, as read not in context, but taken from Anais Nin’s A Spy in the House of Love, 1968, pp. 6-7, sheds light on my ideological treatment of perception.
“She was like an actress who must compose a face, an attitude to meet the day…She must redesign the face, smooth the anxious brows, separate the crushed eyelashes, wash off the traces of secret, interior tears, accentuate the mouth as upon a canvas, so it will hold its luxuriant smile. Inner chaos, like those secret volcanoes which suddenly lift the neat furrows of a peacefully plowed field, awaited behind all disorders of face, hair and costume, for a fissure through which to explode.”
Untitled
Made By Woman
Although it is very difficult for me to think in the terms of ‘feminist’ art (or any kind of separation between the men- women activities), I can’t avoid the context of the Women Beyond Borders project. So I created the double box out of the single one. What inspired me was the fact found in the catalogue that the original wooden boxes had been constructed by a man (called Jack). Inside this wooden box I have put the soft textile box sewn by myself.
The work corresponds with the pattern of sharing the work: men build houses while women make home of them. Such a box is still staying empty, waiting for a real (probably common) issue. Besides this, I simply enjoy sewing.
REFERENCES:
Joseph Beuys: felt textile
United Colors of Benetton: bright colors, social dimension of dressing
‘Titanic,’ the movie: Jack & Rose relationship
My past works: ‘Portable Home’ project
Eva’s Last Wish
“33 years old, 33 kilos; that’s it. Listen Sara, this is an order, because I am going to die, afterwards they will call you to get me ready. You will take away this wishy washy red that I am wearing, and you will replace it with the transparent Queen of Diamonds that you bought for me yesterday, the one from Revlon.”
These were the last words of Eva Perón to Sara Gatti, who used to take care of her hands.
I combined three elements in this box:
• Cards we all play with. The most elegant queen on the deck, surrounded by a special touch of distinction: diamonds.
• As a metaphor of adherent beauty, I have interpreted acrylic nails shops, which are very popular in Guatemala nowadays.
• Evita is the heroine, the saint, the prostitute, a character that still touches many a heart.
Queen of diamonds. An embalmed body with painted fingernails. Symbol of a moment in which she took care of history. Every story has had an Evita, a woman who rules, loves, orders, and rouses from her fingernails, the power of her own world, her own story, her own time.
Evas, to the end; queens, not forever.
New Apple, New Manifesto
For a long time, the apple has been a metaphor of the female’s voice, of Eve’s voice, the voice that carried Adam to the supposed sin and expulsion from paradise. Woman has endured this sinful story for centuries. The same tale is connected to the traditional story of Pandora’s Box. Pandora’s curiosity leads her to open a box that the gods have forbidden. Her sentence is to find within all the evils of the world.
However, in this apple I present a new voice, one of many women who fight for their dignity. It is placed upon a stand and framed as an homage to the women who in the Asia, Africa, Europe, etc. struggle against practices that have put them in positions that are submissive, second class, and at times inhumane.
This new apple is a new manifesto, that of the creative woman who has had to fight for her space and had to change old meanings.
Amazons of the Next Millennium
As the title suggests, my box is a symbol of the Amazons, female warriors, who lived and fought together in a migratory way of life during the golden age. My box is filled with a series of women’s names (two hundred) of all nationalities from antiquity to the present, printed in capital letters, in different colors on white paper tags. Each of the names brings into mind images of a woman we know, we read, we are, or we want to be.
This open box filled with names, which come out from all four sides, becomes almost invisible and signifies the power, the strength, the importance, the influence and the voice we women could achieve working together, for our rights against violence and discrimination at the beginning of the next millennium.
Este es el Misterio
Ex/tension
As a woman artist, activist and feminist, I try to challenge all kinds of social stereotypes (conventions, boundaries) about women, art, politics, etc. that are causing the painful TENSION of my body and my mind.
I know that I share this feeling with many women artists from the past and the present.
I also want to express the women’s strength, courage and creativity which are the means to EXTEND those limits, labels, categories…..It’s hard work and it’s never done!
Until Death Do Us Part
In my home country, Japan, there is a legend for girls that says that their prospective husbands have their little toes tied up to them with an invisible red thread. I used to believe in this legend as well. In my opinion it is wonderful to be able to believe in such a thing.
Since we’re infants, we are educated to play a role either as a woman or as man. I still remember when I used to play house-dolls with my friends and how much we enjoyed playing the mother’s role, like all the mothers of every mother. It is a simple but very pleasing memory that all women have inside. However, nowadays I often feel a victim of the male order and often wonder what can I do about it.
I was thinking of this as I was making my box and I felt like I was playing with dolls again because I was doing typical housework tasks such as sewing, washing, and ironing.
I hope you will tender my piece during the traveling exhibition as if it were our collective memory, which men will never be able to understand. And please, wash it and iron it when needed.
P.S. Do you know what? In Japanese, when we say “to get married” we use the word “to be tied up.” In the end, every princess will be tied up to their blue prince.
Speak
What would happen if one women told the truth about her life? The world would split open.
-Muriel Rukeyser