My coursemates and I had nice treat in our Identity and Visual Representation class this past week. Amelia invited the artist and feminist Faith Wilding to participate in a dialogue with us about her experiences in the women's art and feminist movements. It was quite fascinating to hear about her experiences with Womanhouse at CalArts and working with Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro in their attempts to gain recognition for women artists in both the contemporary art institution as well as in art historical study.
Faith is most widely know for her piece entitled Waiting, a performance piece that comments on the domestic, subservient role of a woman who spends life waiting for things to happen to her, rather than achieving them for herself.
Wilding, Still from Waiting, 1972
. . . Waiting to be myself
Waiting for excitement
Waiting for him to tell me something interesting, to ask me how I feel
Waiting for him to stop being crabby, reach for my hand, kiss me good morning
Waiting for fulfillment
Waiting for the children to marry
Waiting for something to happen
Waiting . . .
What struck me most out of Faith's talk was the direct connection between the emergence of the women's art movement and the feminist movement itself. Faith explained that she would never have become an artist if it hadn't been for her involvement in the feminist movement. Indeed, she claimed to have had little interest in artistic creation in the beginning, and even now views herself first and foremost as an activist. Her current work focuses on issues of cyberfeminism, exploring how new technologies and the internet offer the possibility of breaking down gender roles through a faceless medium. I recommend taking a peek at her website or take a look at her essay entitled "Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism", as it is quite fascinating.
The most interesting part of the discussion, I felt, was our dialogue about the relevancy of feminism in the 21st century. Not to suggest that our generation is post-feminism per se, but concerning the relevancy of the term 'feminism' itself in a post-structuralist vocabulary. Certainly, it would seem that by using the term feminism, or specifying an artist as a 'woman artist', would only work to solidify the very gender binaries that the movement is ostensibly attempting to abolish. Faith spoke quite emphatically on this point, arguing in favor of the term while rejecting its negative connotations, stating that anyone knowledgeable and well-versed in the academic debates surrounding it would have a clear understanding of this. Certainly, the name itself carries an inherent strength, one which ought not be discarded so flippantly.
On the subject, I feel that the very inherent meanings of the word 'feminist' is what works against it many times in contemporary settings. The word itself carries so many connotations of radical women from the 70s that, unless one is well-read in contemporary academic writing, many times those are the images that are associated with the movement, and often times detrimentally. Additionally, by continuing to apply gendered labels to women artists (or 'black artists' or 'gay artists'), we are simply continuing to distinguish them from 'regular' (white, male, hetero-) artists, habituating the 'Othering' of those artists who don't fit into the traditional art canon. In any case, I feel that our academic generation is slowly shifting away from that very distinctive terminology or, at the very least, is more cognizant of its implications.
All in all, Faith's visit was thought-provoking, edifying and quite entertaining. If you aren't familiar with her work, I will plug her website one last time, as well as her involvement with the cyberfeminist group SubRosa-- do visit!
Wilding, Womb Room, 1972
