Title:
Schizoid Spaces of Defiance
Abstract:
My interest in the concept
of “otherness” stems from the multiple cultural identities that I am comprised
of and of navigating them as a woman. Adapting to different patriarchal
systems, some more rigid than others, inspires a personally meaningful
exploration of feminism in my work, that fluidly traverses its predominantly
Western trajectory in art. My perpetually “alien” status has also generated an
impulse to stretch “otherness” to include the viewpoints of entities such as
animals and objects, as a way of constructing a realm of connectedness.
‘Schizoid Spaces of
Defiance’, the body of work that I will be discussing in this thesis, is an
(inconclusive) culmination of experiments conducted over the duration of the
MFA course, grappling with the intentionality of hybridity and ambiguity in
form and function. It attempts to
examine concepts of feminism in a multi-cultural, inter-relational and
contemporary setting. I have initiated addressing the complexities of a
“Cyborg” entity through blending diverse subjectivities, tropes, media and
disciplines.
Introduction:
Shaping psychological
spaces where the Gothic as an aesthetic representing “otherness” is explored.
“[The Gothic explores] fractures,
borders and hybridities” (Smith and Wallace, 2009)
Stretching notions of ‘otherness’ to include feminism as well as
‘animism’/’vibrant materialism’ (Franke)/Bennett or ‘becoming worldly” with
companion species [and objects] (Haraway). Embracing the occult as a subversive
act.
Bennett emphasizes the “active powers issuing from
non-subjects” in her book ‘Vibarant Matter’ (2010)
I.
An interpretation of ‘Postfeminist Gothic’:
1)
The Witch –the (mis)representation of women, the (male gaze’s)
stereotype of the witch/femme fatale. The occult/irrational/unconscious as a
subversive and resilient force of empowerment.
- Munch… painted muted, dark
femmes fatales, emphasizing their sinister presence with skull-like features
and flowing clothes and hair (paper 1, semester 1)
“[The witch] sets things in
motion, stirs the pot, is instigator and matrix of fateful odysseys and
transformations.” (Petroff, 1986)
2) The Cat - meaning and metaphor
representing the subversive/disobedient/metaphysical/feral/demonic/other
“cats are transgressive, breaking
the boundary between nature and culture” (Poulter and Sibley 2000)
3) The Witch’s tools – objects as
otherworldly portals/witnesses/physical traces/performers/active
components/metonyms
“I present the viewer with a word
(…title), a thing or object, and an image or text or chart, a representation.
And the three aspects hang together (or not) in some kind of very close
relationship which might be metaphoric or metonymic…” (Hiller, 2001)
4) Space – a physical
environment, a haven/an asylum, a cage/a punishment, an archive of
traces/interactions/relationships/secrets/rituals, a
psychological/fictitious/imaginary place, an internal space, privacy/voyeurism,
a stage for a performance/a place of autonomy, a [claustrophobic] “space[s] of
femininity” (Pollock).
“The idea of entombment within the
body, frequently described symbolically by the heroine in the ‘Female’ Gothic
being entrapped in womb-like dungeons or other cavernous spaces…” (Paper 1,
Semester 3)
"One must go beyond logic in
order to experience what is large in what is small." (Bachelard 1994)
“unblinking glimpses into the
murkiest waters of the psyche” (Robert Storr, 2001, on Louise Bourgeois’ work)
II.
The juxtaposition and layering of sound, image, space and object:
- Janet Cardiff and George Bures
Miller – “narratives housed in culture, especially genre (such as the
gothic)—which can only be finished subliminally, in viewers’ psyches” (Blaze,
2010)
- Maya Deren – “Poetic
psychodrama” (Schatz, 1999
- Joan Jonas – “[in her] televisual
narratives, Jonas engages viewers in an elusive theatrical portrayal of female
identity” (Sackler, 2007).
Conclusion
-
Exploration of video/objects as a tool to interpret the ‘Post-feminist
Gothic’ genre and a way to erect psychological spaces reflecting the key themes
around ‘Schizoid Spaces of Defiance’.
-
Discussion of work that treads between the physical and psychological
spaces reflecting imposed/self-imposed seclusion.
-
Discussion of the direction in which the work needs to be developed
further.
Bibliography
Griselda Pollock, ‘Modernity and
the spaces of femininity’, Vision and Difference: femininity, feminism and the
history of art, London and New York: Routledge, 1988, pp.50-90
Williams G., ‘The Gothic’,
Whitechapel and MIT Press, London and Cambridge Ma, 2007
Gordon A., ‘Ghostly Matters’,
University of Minnesota Press, 2008
Christov-Bakargiev C., ‘Janet
Cardiff. A Survey of Works Including Collaborations with George Bures Miller’,
P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY, 2001
Crawston C., ‘The Murder of
Crows’, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Germany, 2001
Brabon B., Genz S., ‘Postfeminist
Gothic’, Palgrave Macmillan, NY, 2007
Harawy D., ‘When Species Meet’,
University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 2008
Van den Boogerd D., Bloom B.,
Casadio M., ‘Marlene Dumas’, Phaidon Press Ltd, 2001.
Storr R., Herkenhoff P.,
Shwartzman A., ‘Louise Bourgeois’, Phaidon Press Ltd, 2004.
Chadwick W., ‘Women Artists and
the Surrealist Movement’, Thames and Hudson, London, 1997.
Einzig B., ‘Working Through
Objects”, The Archive (Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art), MIT Press,
2006, pp.41 - 48
Lambert-Beatty C., ‘Make-Believe:
Parafiction and Plausibility’, October Summer 2009, No. 129, pp. 51 – 84
Ratti A., Pinto R., Jonas J. et
al, ‘Joan Jonas’, Charta, Milan, 2007
Bachelard G., ‘The Poetics of
Space’, Beacon Press, 1992
Philo C., Wilbert C.,‘Animal
Spaces, Beastly Places (Critical Geographies)’, Routledge, 2000
Gallagher A., ‘Susan Hiller’, Tate
Publishing, 2011
Websites
Davison C., ‘Haunted
House/Haunted Heroine: Female Gothic Closets in “The Yellow Wallpaper”’,
Routledge, 2004, accessed Feb 20,
www4.ncsu.edu/~leila/documents/DavisononYWP.pdf
Wallace D., Smith A.,
‘The Female Gothic, New Directions’, Pelgrave Mcmillan, 2009, www.palgrave.com/PDFs/9780230222717.Pdf,
www4.ncsu.edu/~leila/documents/TheFemaleGothic-ThenNow.pdf,
www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/The-Female-Gothic.pdf
‘The Female Gothic: An
Introduction’, accessed Feb 15, http://mural.uv.es/maseja/The%20Female%20Gothic.htm
Gothic and Sublime,
University of Arizona, accessed Feb 20, http://www.u.arizona.edu/~atinkham/Sublime.html
Simpson H., ‘Femme
fatale’, The Guardian, 2006, accessed March 18, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/jun/24/classics.angelacarter
Saltz J., ‘Modern
Gothic’, The Village Voice, online 2004, accessed March 18, http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-01-27/art/modern-gothic/full/
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