Over time, women artists have increasingly pushed the envelope sharing the reality of their existence and the means of their expression. The art created by women does not only demand the acknowledgment of women in the art world but it provides a perspective of one individual's worldview encompassing their race, gender, class, etc. that is then transformed into an expressive piece. Fortunately, with the help of technology, we are able to easily discover the women artists of our time, along with sharing their message and artwork. Five contemporary women artists have been chosen because their art directly involves an aspect of modern society while examining themes that past female artists have addressed as well. Each of these women addresses either mental health, capitalism, culture, technology, and race in relation to being, yes a woman, but overall a human being in today's society. It is beneficial to highlight five female artists that address different topics to show the ways in which women artists have inserted themselves in all areas of the art world.
 |
| Bronwyn Lorelei, Selfie, April (2018) From Lorelei's Instagram, @bronwynlorelei |
Mental Illness and Women
Bronwyn Lorelei was a contemporary artist I first wrote about for this course. I continue to be drawn to her work and believe she is a perfect example of an artist who addresses her experience as a woman living with mental illness. The expressiveness of her reality is done in a raw and one may say, grotesque manner to sometimes evoke discomfort but also play as an outlet for Lorelei's inner struggles. Living with severe anxiety, Lorelei has had her fair share of difficulties in life. Between unhealthy relationships and struggling with body positivity, Lorelei has used her illustrations to reclaim the role of the surveyor in identifying her beauty and inner conflicts facing anxiety, often rejecting the male gaze. Like Suzanne Valadon, Lorelei depicts the female body in a way that may not be expected of the time. In Valadon's The Blue Room, a woman is shown comfortably lying down with her face positioned away from the audience (Chadwick, 285). The woman is not positioned in such a way to show off her feminine figure or put her body on display for the observer. The woman is in loose clothes, a slouched posture, and smoking a cigarette in a space that she appears most herself, most real. Lorelei takes this idea of feminine reality and natural form and plays with it, incorporating elements of fantasy into full exposure. Similar to Judy Chicago's work, The Dinner Party, Lorelei uses the vulva as a representation of femininity and the connection she has to her female figure. Chicago and Lorelei's work becomes increasingly more vibrant and blatant in its use of the vulva overtime. It is meant to address the core element of the women artists in The Dinner Party and the root of many of Lorelei's insecurities, the part of the body where one may say womanhood lies. In Lorelei's illustration, At War With Your Mind, shows a two-headed alien-like woman beheading the snakes that exit from her exposed and full vagina. This woman appears to be simultaneously pleasuring herself inserting a finger into her anus.
 |
| Bronwyn Lorelei, At War With Your Mind,Date Unknown |
Lorelei purposely depicts realistic elements in her images, some including pubic hair, uneven breasts, stretch marks, and self-pleasure while inserting meaningful messages as well that may not appear so obvious. The serpents oozing from the woman's female parts crowd her and restrict her movement, yet she finds pleasure in severing their heads and licking their blood off a knife. This idea of finding pleasure in what also harms you is a common theme of her work regarding mental illness. One part of the woman shies away, blood dripping from her mouth, while the other actively indulges in the blood of her enemy. The title alone, At War With Your Mind, speaks to the struggles that come with learning to love one's body, especially the female body and the not-so-pretty parts that come along with being a woman. Lorelei continues to express her struggle with mental illness and her love for the female body, injecting the fantastical elements of her psyche and drawing inspiration from her own physical form.
 |
| Sara Cwynar Courtesy of Patrick McMullan |
Capitalism and Women
Sara Cwynar is a contemporary artist who works with collage, book-making, installations, and photography to express the relationship between the 'cycles of capitalism' and feminism. Similar to Barbara Kruger, Cwynar works to highlight and identify the role of a consumer and the effect of capitalism on our lives. The artist works to showcase this relationship in a way that involves movement and subtlety versus Kruger's stationary yet bold graphics. An example of this representative softness is depicted in Cwynar's video essay, Soft Film (2016). Soft Film examines how items purchased travel through the internet and exist in a new owner's life in a way it did not before. The artist takes the time to go through her eBay account and archive all the items she has ever bought or viewed. Cwynar arranges her collection of items purchased from her eBay account in the video based on a system. Items were divided based on material, color, use, and vintage status. Shown below is the most important item of all, the velveteen jewelry box. Cwynar physically studies the jewelry box, feeling the texture and playing with its hinges. This item ends up becoming the central motif of the video essay. The artist states that jewelry box, which is now traded on eBay as a collectible, was originally meant to hold a high value and fashionable rock. The footage of the
 |
| Sara Cwynar, still from Soft Film (2016 Image by artnet news |
artist feeling the box is meant to show the softness of the velvet, representing "soft misogyny" or "soft sexism" that is characterized by subtle forms of discrimination. Women typically were not meant to play a part in business and financial transactions unless it was for their labor or committing to marriage. Cwynar's work shines a light on women being involved and present in the world of consumerism and technology. In the past, women produced the products to be consumed. What was bought and bargained was a product of women's labor. Women's labor for a long time was seen as their only purpose. What can they produce for man and other's but not for themselves? Like many female artists, Cwynar incorporates multiple messages in her work. In this case, the role of capitalism, misogyny, feminism, and technology. In a time where technology is such a crucial part of connecting and interacting with the world, it does not come to a surprise that female artists, in particular, are examining the relationship between the digital world and the female experience.
 |
| Ann Hirsch, Joe Schmelzer |
Technology and Women
Ann Hirsch is another contemporary female artist whose main artistic platform is video and performance art. Hirsch examines the way in which technology affects popular culture, sexuality, and gender by using video as a means of performance art. Hirsch states in an interview with New York magazine, "The feminine side is starting to take over and dominate the internet." This gives solid insight into how she approaches her work, shamelessly inserting her feminine experience into the digital world. As seen in the Sackler Center of the Brooklyn Museum, past artists have used videos as a means of performance art such as Victoria Santa Cruz in her piece Me Gritaron Negra. However, Hirsch's work is meant to exist within the social media platforms that are most popular, and therefore most used in today's world, like YouTube. One of the artist's most popular works is indeed a YouTube channel titled Scandalishious. Hirsch creates Caroline, a character meant to represent the two types of women you would see on YouTube during 2008-09. Hirsch states in an interview with The Guardian, "There was the woman whose face you never saw, she wouldn't speak, and all she did was booty dancing for the camera; she was a sexual object with no identity. Then you would have the girls who would talk to the camera but they would never be sexual." Hirsch embodies Caroline, performing as a hipster "camwhore" in order to combine these two female internet personas that you typically don't see coexisting. This experience helped her to
 |
| Ann Hirsch, still from 51 THINGS I FOUND IN MY POON, part of Scandalishious, 2009 |
realize that she was then a part of a community of people trying to figure themselves out, women included. Women are frequently criticized for either being too sexual or not sexual enough and Hirsch wanted to create a dissonance this character, Caroline. She interacted directly with her "fans" and those who left comments on her videos, many of which were kind but also cruel. Hirsch is another artist who works to defy the male gaze by creating her own persona. She understood that she would be criticized and faced with misogynistic remarks but that is what she wanted. The goal was to expose how women exist in the digital world whether they are sexual or not, and how this treatment translates into the everyday life of your ordinary and extraordinary woman.
 |
| Free 'Da' Gum Series by Tony Gum Date Unknown |
Culture and Women
According to Vogue, Tony Gum is the "coolest girl in Cape Town" and it does not take much to see why. Originally born, Zipho, Gum is a flamboyant self-portraitist that combines elements of her African Heritage with images of pop culture. It was very important for her to create art that represents different types of black bodies in modern media so she took it upon herself to do so. Although a lover of fashion, as she began to learn more about black consciousness she wanted to represent her culture and existence as an African woman in forms other than attire. Shown below is an example of one of these forms, Gum's piece titled Pin Up from the Black Coca-Cola Series. The series included a large array of identities that she combined with the well known Coke brand. Gum's goal with the photograph below was to embrace Western culture while staying true to her African roots. It is common that women, especially women of color in the art world and beyond are expected to dim down their experience and who they truly are in order to make others more comfortable. Gum embraces her culture and does not let the opinions of others bring her down but uses it as a form of expression and identity. Gum attempts to create a close relationship between the brands we use in everyday life and the "people" with much of her work. She has created the opportunity for herself to showcase African culture and still fuse with Western society. Her Instagram account, @tony_gum, defines this collaboration and intimate link between the two existing cultures that have defined her experience in depth. Tony does not look past womanhood in her work, as well. In her most recent work, Ode to She, Gum writes a letter to herself. She states, "That process of being a woman or human is so wonderful, how about we pay homage to that? How about we understand and acknowledge this...we tend to look past each other, we don't see each other for who we are, sometimes we miss our own personal experiences, the truths of being an individual." Based on this ideology, the letter explores what it means to be an Xhosa woman or the human expression of "womanhood." Self-reflection is a key element in her work. Gum's African roots and womanhood are almost always combined in her self-portraits, never ignoring the true identity and most intimate self. In regards to addressing culture throughout this course and in Gum's work, culture is represented in various ways. Gum continuously includes a fusion of African and Western culture through clothing, history, capitalism and gender roles.  |
| Tony Gum, Pin Up (Black Coca-Cola Series), Courtesy of Christopher Moller Gallery |
 |
| Esmaa Mohamoud Taken by Anthony Gilbert for SLAM |
Race and Women
One of the main themes addressed throughout this semester is the interplay of race in the experience of a woman artist. Esmaa Mohamoud aims to address race, toxic masculinity, and womanhood as experienced by the black individual in society through her art. She began drawing at a young age but truly began to flourish when her father encouraged her artistic needs and began buying her art supplies. At a young age, she knew she was going to be an artist and here she is today. Growing up in a household with four brothers, basketball was a large part of her life. She admits not being very good at playing the actual sport but she thoroughly enjoyed watching. Her relationship with basketball growing up translates into her most popular works where she addresses racial politics and the realities that black men face on and off the court. She tells Fader, "I'm using the realm of athletics to speak to issues of black masculinity; how violence and athletics go hand-in-hand in black culture." For a long time, she felt she didn't have a voice in addressing this issue because she was a woman and her artwork became a way for her to insert herself into the conversation about black men from the inside looking deeper. Inspired by the documentary Hoop Dreams, Mohamoud created her most well-known piece. Heavy, Heavy (Hoop Dreams) features 60 deflated basketballs, all sculpted from concrete. Each piece weighing 30 pounds. Mohamoud gathered basketballs into her studio and began to study them. She thought these objects felt light but represented a more psychologically heavy issue, cue the concrete. She then deflated the balls to represent how black men feel and the state of a black man's dream in society. It was important to her that the balls did not only look heavy but physically felt heavy. Mohamoud addresses the realities that people of color continue to face and the importance of having women included in the conversations. Having artists like Esmaa Mohamoud ensures that race is continually included in the context of art and the human experience. She actively inserts herself into the art world because she acknowledges that if she does not, a white body will. Not only is she demanding space for the black community but for female artists within the black community as well.
 |
| Heavy, Heavy (Hoop Dreams), Esmaa Mohamoud (2016) 10x10 feet, 60 basketballs 30lbs each |
Sources
Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. 4th ed. New York, N.Y.: Thames and Hudson, 1990. Print.
Links
https://www.meca.edu/about/institute-of-contemporary-art/past-exhibitions/sharing-love/
https://news.artnet.com/market/top-10-booths-art-basel-2016-520751
http://tonygum.blogspot.co.za/p/contact-me.html
http://www.saracwynar.com/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhCZxz9H9TC/?hl=en&taken-by=bronwynlorelei
https://city-press.news24.com/Trending/queen-of-selfies-20160220
http://therealannhirsch.com/bio/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/21/digital-artist-ann-hirsch-singing-vagina
http://www.slamonline.com/artists/esmaa-mohamoud-art-basketball/
https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artwork/36903/Sara-Cwynar-Soft-Film
https://www.thecut.com/2013/11/artist-ann-hirsch-recreates-aol-cybersex.html
No comments:
Post a Comment