Experience, Create, Review, Repeat

At first I wanted to show the difference between masculine and feminine views of woman and tried to work through my thoughts in my noteboook (pictured below).

Notebook Page
 
I pictured two images facing each other, perhaps on opposite walls in a space, one a simple smear of vaginal fluid, crudely shown.  The other would be a microscopic image of vaginal fluid, showing the complexity of the organisms that exist on a microscopic level in this part of the human system.

However, again it felt like I was trying to make things more difficult and complicated than they needed to be.  I suppose I need to trust that one element of an idea is enough and have confidence that somebody might get it.

Microscopic Image of Vaginal Fluid
Available at: http://drjacki-atyourcervix.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/rip-roaring-vaginitis.html

LESS IS MORE……again

I have to keep repeating it, hopefully I’ll manage to remember automatically!

After a quick google search, I found some microscopic imagery of vaginal fluids and they’re actually quite beautiful.  This is just what I was hoping for.

Aim:
– to capture the complexity of femininity in a beautiful image

So, how do I go about getting my own microscopic imagery of vaginal fluids in a format of good enough quality to be able to enlarge to display as a solo photographic image?

Science technicians here I come.

The main thought that keeps coming into my head as new ideas are arising and older ones are developing is to keep things as simple as possible.  I get the feeling from the research I’ve been doing on artists like Helen Chadwick and Sarah Lucas, that their works are all made stronger by a simplicity which encourages a confidence in the message.

In the group crit session I had with Reika from the RCA she made an interesting point:  I have approached the ideas of a masculine view of woman.  I’ve also touched on my own view of myself as a woman.  How about a more generalised feminine view of woman.

This got me thinking

How do women view woman ?

– I’ve addressed the generalised, misogynistic, masculine view
– I’ve begun to look inward at myself
– Do women view woman in the same way as men, through a patriarchal lens?

Men have defined the parameters of every subject. All feminist arguments, however radical in intent or consequence, are with or against assertions or premises implicit in the male system, which is made credible or authentic by the power of men to name.
Andrea Dworkin
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/andreadwor154462.html

While I was considering ways in which women view woman, the quote above that I found while researching the works of Andrea Dworkin for my dissertation about misogynistic language, came to mind.
Theoretically it means that no matter how women express their femininity, they do so wholly within the parameters of language which, is a fundamentally masculine tool.

So, what tool can I use that is fundamentally female, untainted by masculinity?
 
I feel like the answer to this question is almost nothing.
I’ve been contemplating the idea of using vaginal fluid as a tool.  Despite there being all manner of abusive language that references it, I am drawn to the idea that it is inherently feminine.  I’m struggling with the idea but I feel like there is something in there for me to find that could make a really interesting piece of work.  Initially I was imaging some kind imagery, one as a masculine view of woman and one as a feminine.

I, as a woman believe that a feminine view of woman would be radically more complex than just a single purpose sex object.  So:

How to demonstrate a complex view of woman, using vaginal fluid, and keeping it simple?

• 
• 

Notebook Pages

I’ve been going over ideas for how to make use of the Dapper Laughs ‘comedy’ material and something has come up.

Aims for the work:

– represent the uncomfortable feeling of being bombarded with misogyny
– create a space where the noise of his language is like a never-ending barrage
– symbolise the excess of continuing misogynistic attitudes in western society

Notebook Page

At first it felt to me like the neon sign demonstrating a similar attitude to that expressed in Dapper Laughs’s language links well and could work in the piece as another element.  I imagine a small space (discomforting) filled with loud noise of misogynistic ‘banter’ language (bombarding) and nothing to see but the (perhaps flickering) lights of the neon sign depicting even more misogyny.  Altogether I feel like it would be an almost nauseating experience of what it’s like to understand just a small element of the chauvinism that still exists after such a sustained fight for gender equality.

LESS IS MORE!!!
 
After a really interesting group crit session with a visiting student from the RCA Reika, I started to realise that this idea is exactly the kind of thing I have been hoping to avoid in my work.

why it wouldn’t work so well:

– too many elements
– too ‘in your face’ which is what I want to avoid
– throwing too much in smells like lack of confidence

Reika made an interesting point that just using the sound and keeping the installation as simple as possible would give the work more strength.  If it’s discomfort I’m going for, often a lack of something can be just as discomforting if not more so, than a barrage of it.

Notebook Page
 

I’ve been pointed in the direction of the work of Helen Chadwick and was instantly intrigued.  I like how links seem to pop up just at the right point, when they seem to fit perfectly into this time.  Initially as in the last post, I was interested in her questioning of her own issues in work like Ego Geometria Sum, then the more I researched, the more interesting and varied material I found.

I like:
– The way materials she uses are so conflicting
– the instantaneous repulsion and seduction
– it can be shocking but not gratuitously

Effluvia, 1994,  Helen Chadwick (Installation view from the exhibition Helen Chadwick: Effluvia, Serpentine Gallery), London (20 July – 29 August 1994)
Available at: http://www.serpentinegalleries.org/exhibitions-events/helen-chadwick-effluvia

Loop My Loop, 1991, Helen Chadwick, (photograph of human hair and pigs bladder)
Available at: http://imageobjecttext.com/2012/04/09/sensory-overload/

Both the images above are intended to be repugnant but seductive simultaneously.  I find myself initially, adequately repulsed by the pigs bladder in Loop My Loop, and the awkward shape of the phallus and oozing chocolate in Effluvia, then seduced.  However, although I’m seduced by the objects within the work, the pretty gold hair and the velvety, warm smoothness of the chocolate, I’m also seduced by the concept.  I like what she’s done because I feel like my emotions have been toyed with and then comes a realisation of the idea behind that emotional ride.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s her work became richer and more direct in impact. A fountain of thick chocolate called Cacao carried associations both of excessive physical desire and pleasure, at the same time being base and nauseating.
(http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/helen-chadwick-2253)

This quote from the Tate website highlights another element of her work I find exciting.  “her work became richer and more direct in impact”.  I like this.  This is the kind of thing I’m aiming for.  Whether I’m capable of it is a whole other question but I can only try.  It brings me back again to a question that I keep asking myself:

How can I make my work seductive yet repulsive, intelligent and impactful in a similar way????
 
Although, as I’ve mentioned in the last post, some of the ideas that come into my thoughts seem initially repulsive, I’m beginning to understand that that repulsion can be a good thing if dealt with in the right way.  ‘In your face’ feels inappropriate, it’s been done and can easily become cliché.  The brash ‘ladette’ style of feminism has had it’s time and I’m getting the feeling that a more eloquent voicing of opinion is the way to go.