| Back in the 70s, the heyday of the feminist movement in New York, one might choose to accept that dictum articulated by critic Lucy Lippard—that all art is political, whether intentionally so or not. Today, when you walk into the Brooklyn Museum’s new Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, what you see on the walls is not just Lippard’s idea, but another one that seems to have taken hold—that the personal is political. And, following that idea is the logical conclusion—all art is personal. Naturally, women’s bodies, the hallmark of the movement, are the salient features of this exhibit, and all work is organized under the themes of life cycles, identities, politics and emotions. |  |
The Syllogism Rules – Helen Levin
Back in the 70s, the heyday of the feminist movement in New York, one might choose to accept that dictum articulated by critic Lucy Lippard—that all art is political, whether intentionally so or not. Today, when you walk into the Brooklyn Museum’s new Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, what you see on the walls is not just Lippard’s idea, but another one that seems to have taken hold—that the personal is political. And, following that idea is the logical conclusion—all art is personal. Naturally, women’s bodies, the hallmark of the movement, are the salient features of this exhibit, and all work is organized under the themes of life cycles, identities, politics and emotions. Death and mutilation are also ever-present features. Examples come early in the show. In the first hall, one is greeted with an oversized painting of several grossly overweight women, seemingly in a stupor, scarred and with bodies intertwined. The artist, Jenny Saville of the U.K., is, as are all of the artists in the show, young. She was born in 1970, conforming to one of the criterion that was used in curating this show: all artists invited have birthdates no earlier than 1960. A coherent justification for this criterion was never proffered.
Much of the “Global Feminisms” show is comprised of large-scale photographs or video installations of the iconoclastic, yet didactic kind. Be prepared to see a nude Israeli woman self-injure with a hula-hoop made of barbed wire within her video loop (a work by Sigalit Landau). On display also is Sigalit Landau’s performance piece of a woman ripping her dress on nails, dedicated to missing women in Vancouver. A flat, serpentine tombstone with a video installation is in place here as well. Installed amid maple leaves and showing an extended tongue licking upward, the work was created by Pipilotti Rist of Switzerland and connects death with the erotic. There is an elaborate video from Japan depicting a young man who, allegedly, had a fetus implanted into his body in order to give birth to a child. At one point, the procedure seems to be making him deathly ill.
Another work, “Back to Nature,” by Swedish artist Annika van Hausswolff, is a series of three chromogenic photos of nude women whose bodies are strewn across a parkland, as though violated victims in a crime scene. Perhaps the most entertaining video on display was Polish artist Katarzyna Kozyra’s Il Castrato, a humorous Dadaist opera in which a female in a male’s bodily regalia is castrated in the presence of 18th century transvestites, and in front of a male homosexual audience. The female is then honored by being escorted off the stage on a horse. It is clear from the show that what the curators define as feminist art is art that relates to artists with “issues.”
Two pieces that didn’t conform to this: the wall hanging made of human hair by Cuban artist Tania Bruguera and a photo of Mahuika from Lisa Reihana of New Zealand. These were impressive, however. Despite the supreme efforts at inclusiveness of artists from around the globe, most of the selected video installations were unimaginative. This is what passes in the States as “new media” by curators who, sadly, don’t fully understand it. Further, the leaving out of older, and/or more formalistic female artists will end up shrinking the feminist map and could even help make it irrelevant. After all, if the appreciation and valuing of women’s art is still a feminist issue (as it began), then we (as artists) must look to the feminist leaders, curators, etc, in order to widen the “inclusive” umbrella to all styles of women’s art.
Architect Susan T. Rodriguez designed The Sackler Center, which is comprised of modern arrangements of space, including a triangular room devoted entirely to the table setting of the permanent display of Judy Chicago’s collaborative and colorful Dinner Party. “Global Feminisms” runs through the summer with additional events, talks and symposiums ongoing.
