Artivist: women in art and activism
Prior to being introduced to the Guerrilla Girls in class, I viewed a documentary film called Kusama:Infinity which is about Yayoi Kusama’s life, of her rise from shame to fame from living with a conservative family in Japan to becoming an influential artist worldwide. This later galvanized me to expand my knowledge on women artists. Upon learning that she struggled to find a gallery that would exhibit her work, and wrestling with racism as a Japanese artist and sexism as a woman artist in the art world, this made me question how many women and women of color in the art world that I knew or heard of. It prompted me to start discussing the representation of women in art with friends and family.
Surprisingly, my circle of friends and I came up with similar woman artists that consisted of Frida Kahlo, Betye Saar, and Kusama. That was it. We could only come up with three women artists that were well-known in the art world. We did not really know of anyone else. When I shifted gears and this time asked of famous men artists or just men artists that we knew, the discussion was more animated and lively--Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Cornell, Katsushika Hokusai, Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Michelangelo popped up in our minds. That being said, I connected the Kusama documentary, the lack of women artists my colleagues and I knew, and the activism the Guerrilla Girls do, to do my part in learning and expanding this pool of knowledge regarding women and women of color in art. However, I took it a step further. Being inspired by Kusama’s moxie, I want to highlight women artists whose work intertwines with activism.
My work has given me social capital in this field and I have accumulated people such as Professor Midori Yoshimoto who I had as a teacher for her Contemporary Art class and Japanese Pop Culture and Art class, and who took us on a trip to MoMA; and also students who are media and art majors who have done or are doing internships for experienced artists (our Editor-in-Chief, Monica Sarmiento, is a Graphics Design major and is doing an internship with an artist named Cheryl R. Riley; our Arts and Entertainment editor, Maxine Antoine, is a media arts major; and our Sports editor, Kristen Hazzard is a Photography major). I think this will allow me to attain information and resources efficiently.
My Adviser has also voiced how she wants to venture out to a place called Mana Contemporary. So I already have prior knowledge and experience with writing for the newspaper and a propensity for the arts (I am an English major with a creative writing concentration). The Gothic Times has readership on campus with students and staff, and some even read us from different parts of the world. It has an online website where every issue is archived and put up online as downloadable PDFs; the Gothic Times also has a podcast, instagram, soundcloud, twitter, and facebook. These resources are ready to be used at my disposal--with the permission of my Adviser and Editor-in-Chief, of course.
For my midterm project, I want to start a column in the Gothic Times which I want to call “Artivist: Women in art and activism”. This column will hold an article weekly that will be published either on the Gothic Times physical newspaper (this is circumstantial because the Gothic Times only publishes three times per semester and has a word limit) or the Gothic Times Website. The column will be a special feature about discovering, researching, and shining a spotlight on any woman artist I can find (not limited to the United States) from the time of Michelangelo (if I can) to the present. It will highlight details such as the struggles they faced in the art world, a brief summary of their childhood or defining parts of their lives that made them the person they were, their personal interests and what inspires their art, and what they do to partake in activism and why they are significant. Aside from Yayoi Kusama, some artists I am already thinking of featuring are Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Barbara Kruger, Betye Saar, the Guerrilla Girls, Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, Frida Kahlo, and Lynda Benglis.
Bibliography: https://www.theartstory.org/movement-feminist-art-artworks.htm#pnt_7
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/517139969688145088/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1893269/
http://wow.sportmax.com/en/?p=4863
No comments:
Post a Comment