[-empyre-] Carolee Schneeman

[Constanza Salazar]

Thank you, Renate for your reply.

In my research I constantly find myself returning not only to the body but
also to feminist artists and their works. My research primarily deals with
tactical media since 2001 in the US, after 911. I am mostly concerned with
how artists are thinking beyond the visual and considering the senses,
affect, camouflage, and embodiment through technology/new media as a means
of resistance against power and control from major tech corporations and
even the government. Many of the artists working in these areas, I believe
owe a lot to the works by these pioneering feminist artists who used their
bodies through performance, video, and as an object in itself against the
usual or traditional methods of visual representation on canvas. Artists
like Schneeman, and others like Jill Magid, for instance, use their bodies
as modes of political dissent, and these are some ways, through which we
can think about embodiment rather than disembodiment--which is the usual
traditional way of thinking about technologies--as a source of power and
transformation. I think that it's necessary, especially for contemporary
art scholars to always look back at precedents, especially in the case of
new technology, of how the same issues we are dealing with today,
surveillance, visual capture, the marginalization of bodies, and the
compartmentalization (categorization) of bodies, have their roots early on.
Moreover, the roots of resistance begin with feminist artists. It is in the
way that the body transforms, metamorphosizes, and can move fluidly that I
base my research on and why Schneeman was so influential for me in thinking
about "contemporary issues."

Thanks.

On Tue, Apr 16, 2019 at 9:46 PM Renate Ferro <rferro at cornell.edu> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Constanza wrote:
> <snip>
> But for me, it was in the role that the
> body played within the works by feminist artists that made an impact on
> me. It was the return to the body, as an object, a material thing, a
> corporeal and phenomenological thing in the world that inspired a true
> awakening in thinking intellectually about the role of women throughout art
> history.
> <snip>
>
> Thanks Constanza for your thoughts about Carolee Scheemann.  A quick
> anecdote about Carolee.  Tim and I attended a feminist conference at the
> University of Montreal in 2002 or 2003.  Carolee was an invited guest
> lecturer.  A bit later in the afternoon on Saturday, the second day of the
> conference, she suggested the three of us escape the stuffiness of the day
> and grab a drink at a local bar.  We spent a wonderfully interesting time
> listening to her ideas most particularly about politics as it was shortly
> after 911. She was adamant about moving to Canada to escape as she felt
> vulnerable as an artist as the US Government was tracking citizens and
> infiltrating rights with illegal wiretaps and other means. As an artist,
> she felt particularly vulnerable.  I believe she ended up moving to Canada
> for a short time after our conversation but for that afternoon we ended up
> taking a walk in the beautiful sunlit grass, Carolee in bare feet.
>
> The recording of all histories is a precarious one. What is it that gets
> recorded?  What privileges certain information over others?   I was also
> frustrated as a young artist sitting in art history and art studios where
> the artists presented to us were that of a western male canon.  For me art
> history was documented in Janson’s Art History and Gardner’s Book of Art
> History where historical art was presented according to time periods and
> classical categories:  Cave Era, Egyptian Art, Greek Art, Roman and Gothic
> periods and so on.
>
> Early feminist artists such as Scheemann along with Judy Chicago, Hanne
> Darbovan, Eva Hesse, and others are featured in a well-crafted recent film
> by artist Lynn Hershman. !Women Art and Revolution.
>   http://www.womenartrevolution.com/
> Hershman’s film tells of the feminist movement born from politics and free
> speech through direct interviews and artefacts of video and film. It is
> through the film that Hershman corrects the telling of art history through
> original documents.
>
> The feminist turn to the body was indeed a turning point and one that
> helped to raise the consciousness of women. Thanks Constanza.  Looking
> forward to hearing more.
>
> Renate
>
>
>
>
> Renate Ferro
> Visiting Associate Professor
> Director of Undergraduate Studies
> Department of Art
> Tjaden Hall 306
> rferro at cornell.edu
>
>
>
> On 4/16/19, 4:27 PM, "empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au on
> behalf of Constanza Salazar" <empyre-bounces at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> on behalf of cs2293 at cornell.edu> wrote:
>
>     ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu



-- 

*Constanza Salazar*

Ph.D. Student

Department of the History of Art and Visual Studies

GM08 Goldwin Smith Hall

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY 14853

cs2293 at cornell.edu
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