Re-reading Edward Weston Feminism, Photography and Psychoanalysis by Roberta McGrath
Cindy Sherman Burning Down the House by Jan Avgikos
Doubletake - The Diary of a Relationship with an Image by Lucy R. Lippard
If you have any questions please let me know.
Sherman
ReplyDeleteFilm stills, fashion photos, fairy tales, art-historical portraiture, scenes of dummies deployed in sex acts
Feminism, “human ‘ mean male.
“Pornographic, Sherman integrates female identity, representation, contamination, and taboo” contemporary feminism? Why because she is a female artist?
‘Oppression and objectification that surround pornography do not reside exclusively in the image, but in the very act of looking, in which we ascribe sexual difference’
I don’t understand that looking at the image we are looking through the eyes of the photographer and assume he is male and we take on the male gaze.? It al becomes literal when the sitter is female.
“By rendering the body problematic, and exposing what is conventionally hidden, Sherman infuses the desirous look with a sense of dread and dis-ease”
I dislike the argument that’s art is porn. When can talk extensively about Sherman’s work and “the greater purpose”, and im sure we could also do this with porn. But porn dose not offer us an opportunity for discussion in a little video shop, art dose in a gallery or book. Outlets and venues (institutions) decide.
“Disruptive Power” referring to Sherman’s work.
"Nice girls don't--and feminists certainly don't" – We all do. Maybe not to extremes, but maybe.
We where never goddesses in the garden, always human, with human desires. The idea of the fragile “lady” is on of the male, im not saying women didn’t play the role, but with out rights and freedom women where left to fit the mold men made for them.
Weston
Marxism, psychoanalysis and linguistics aided in the women’s movement.
Not born a woman but becomes one – this may be too radical for the time, but now seems logical that gender is in the mind.
Weston’s argued that his photos where about aesthetic body beauty and not the individual, its had not to see and individual when there is one in the frame.
Saying the 3 most beautiful shapes in the world are a woman figure, a violin and a boat… comparing a female body to inanimate objects is both problematic and offensive. It’s irresponsible to not have content in your work as an artist.
Photo-work/Dream-work - ?
Photography and sex, both penetrating.. One physical the other space, are closely linked. The eye becoming the penis, suggest the male stereotype that mean think with their penises.
Weston’s work seems more “pornographic” than Sherman’s. Nudity is not shocking and we have all seen it, so it becomes more about the content and intent and about the artist (the discourse) than the imagery in the photographs.
Negative and nude, women as objects there for his pleasure. “Negative, less, minus, incompliant(without a man). Women becoming plus when photographed, their purpose.
Losing the camera as castration. His eye is his penis metaphorically speaking.
Couteau aides to Weston’s massaging with the quote “ art is born out of an incestuous union between make and female elements within the male” – only the male can make the art, female as muse and object.
Doubletake
The relationship with author, space, time, sitter and photographer. The white photographer photographing natives and the author is a white critic, criting natives.
A sense of jealousy of the courage in the photographer and the Beavers.
McGrath - A lot of this article was a little much of a stretch for me, for example, the glossy paper and moistness is associated with sex. I do see the very distant link, but I don't think that was the intention of Weston. I think women have this crazy need to over analyze everything, especially when it comes to other women, or anything female related. I would normally consider myself to be a feminist, but I can't really say that I agreed with a lot of this article. I'd say, sure, Weston's work totally was about the female body, curves, skin, but I think it was made out of fascination, and adoration, and the need to learn and see more of the female body. Usually when I make work, I make it because I need to understand something better, I think that's more of what Weston was going for.
ReplyDeleteAvgikos- I never understand why some people take women's bodies so.... critically? There is this need to deconstruct any work that is made about or in regards to the female body. I never hear/read about work of men's bodies in such critical fashion. I do think that women see 'differently.' But, I also think that every single person sees differently than the next. I think this has nothing to do with your anatomy, but your upbringing, back ground and personality. Penis VS vagina? Why do people get so crazy about it? (Also, what is a 'wet test?' "Can photos be porn if they don't pass the 'wet test,' if, indeed the bodies are plastic?") I didn't think her work was pornographic, weird, but not porn. People are way too sensitive about the body.
Lippard- "In works like this one, some of those barriers are down, or invisible, and we have the illusion of seeing for ourselves, the way we never would see for ourselves, which is what communication is all about." I really enjoyed reading about her process of discovering more about the people in this photograph. I do think that photography is a mode of communication, whether it be what the photographer is feeling, seeing, going through. It's just a different way of allowing someone else into your ....head? space? feelings? It's so sad to me that these old photographs are all we have left of our past. Humans are so destructive in nature, and always wanting the next best thing, why can't we just enjoy what we have, and our surroundings?