[-empyre-] Inliveling the archive

[Claudia Costa Pederson]

Thank you. I like the reorientation of the present discussion. In
particular I appreciate the mention of the substantial contributions that
feminists set (what seems now long ago) to undertake in relation to the
activation of the archive (I was recently reminded of this again during a
visit to the Brooklyn museum in NYC where Judy Chicago's Dinner Party has
finally found its final resting place; amidst the tomb-like atmosphere
enveloping the installation its power was still very much felt as a number
of middle aged women orbited around the table reading the names of real
and imaginary women inscribed on the place mats and floor tiles and
discussing the piece with the spirited female museum guard that
enthusiastically shared her knowledge about the work...I felt the
compulsion to add some names to the table myself).

On this note I would like to share some comments apropos the issue of
political art and the fallibility of such a project posed by Ruiz III in a
comment to my first posting. First, art and representation is always
political (the artists attached to the notion of so called art for art's
sake were fully conscious of the political implication of such an
statement as a jab at the a-political enframent of aesthetics by the
rising bourgeois order). Second, it is indeed not a question of valorizing
a particular epistemology over another (binary though/argumentation is not
for nothing throughly disputed by feminists conscious of how binaries have
systematically been employed as exclusionary moves and as a sign of
disengagement). The issue is not the positing of choice between empiricism
versus nomadic though or play; it is rather a question of recognizing that
all frameworks of knowledge have their limitations.  It is thus a matter
of thinking through these limitations and to reorient thought from
nihilist dead-ends toward the continuation of dialogue. It is amidst a
sustained dialogue that I believe we might find some hope and in this
process gain insights into ourselves and the 'others.' Lastly I believe
that the rational and the imaginary are equally necessary in thinking
through issues pertaining to representation and power...at this point we
may even need to dig deeper into the imagination to argue our emancipatory
visions.

It is precisely this notion that drives the work of some of the artists I
previously mentioned.  Yes they are fully aware that the art industry is
fully implicated in capitalist reproduction; and yes they know that the
category of art is a 19th century bourgeois invention.  Nonetheless for
better or for worse (and I think for better; I even think them more brave
for it) they continue to engage the art world as one of the platforms
(sometimes) available for dispersion (yes they are also opportunistic). 
Here is why in the words of Faith Wilding, a admirable artist, organizer,
and feminist hailing from Paraguay:

"Monumentality after all is the spectacular business of capitalist
culture. But it lives and feeds off a much more fragmented cultural
economy where varying and shifting power relations operate. Oppositional
and resistant cultural producers must be careful not to romanticize and
essentialize "outsider" positions because these are easy to categorize,
co-opt and render ineffectual. In fact, I don't think radical and
resistant artists should spend a lot of energy worrying about co-optation
since it will happen anyway--rather, we must think about being flexible
with our own tactics and moving faster than they can move."

P.S. On a great example of the activation of the archive for emancipatory
ends, I'm reading Michele Le Doeuff's Hipparchia's Choice: An Essay
Concerning Women, Philosophy, Etc. (1989). Hers is a great work drawing
from both analytical and continental philosophy and relating it the
question of women and philosophy (yes she mentions her distaste to
consider women as an ontological category and that is why she wrote the
book). I wonder why she is never mentioned or commended for it. I promise
to pick up the thread of the discussion on new media and the archive in my
next post. Salut.