W.A.R. (Women Art Revolution)
Lynn Hershman Leeson creates a monument to all the women who have changed the world of art since the 1960s as artists, curators and critics. The film is composed of film clips and interviews that Hershman Leeson has collected over a number of decades. Alongside important artists such as Yoko Ono, Yvonne Rainer and Carolee Schneemann, women in the museum business are also featured. Starting from portraits and film clips on the political background, the film tells of the struggle for the recognition of female artists in the second half of the 20th century.
I was especially inspired by Yoko Ono’s piece, “Cut Piece”, 1964, and Marina Abramovic’s “Rythm 10”, 1973. In Cut Piece, one of Yoko Ono’s early performance works, the artist sat alone on a stage, dressed in her best suit, with a pair of scissors in front of her. The audience had been instructed that they could take turns approaching her and use the scissors to cut off a small piece of her clothing, which was theirs to keep. Some people approached hesitantly, cutting a small square of fabric from her sleeve or the hem of her skirt. Others came boldly, snipping away the front of her blouse or the straps of her bra. Ono remained motionless and expressionless throughout, until, at her discretion, the performance ended. In reflecting upon the experience recently, the artist said: “When I do the Cut Piece, I get into a trance, and so I don’t feel too frightened”.
Abramović’s first forays into performance focused primarily on sound installations, but she increasingly incorporated her body – often harming it in the process. In Rhythm 10, she used a series of 20 knives to quickly stab at the spaces between her outstretched fingers. Every time she pierced her skin, she selected another knife from those carefully laid out in front of her. Halfway through, she began playing a recording of the first half of the hour-long performance, using the rhythmic beat of the knives striking the floor, and her hand, to repeat the same movements, cutting herself at the same time. She has said that this work marked the first time she understood that drawing on the audience’s energy drove her performance; this became an important concept informing much of her later work.
Making themselves their own victims and open to abuse is very uncomfortable to watch, but I think it’s extremely important that pieces like these exist because of how much I related to their situations, knowing how vulnerable their bodies become. Ono’s piece leaves the audience in control, showing confidence and trust, whereas “Abramović’s art comes from trauma and the body’s relationship to the state” (Dr. Kristine Stiles), proving how violent and vulnerable women’s art is, and how embodied it is in feminist art. Moving away from violence, trauma and anger, which are all rightfully felt by women artists, I want to use the negative experiences I’ve ever faced for being a woman and throw it back at our patriarchal society by using some humour, as Marcia Tucker said in 2006, “humour is the single most subversive weapon we have”. I’ll be doing this with nipple stickers with the words “fuck me” on them, holding a large clay and exaggerated vagina, symbolising what I’ll be metaphorically selling, which no one will be able to touch me, still making me completely in control of the situation.
saratrouble 