Why do I want to do this?

On my way to work, my internship, school, I’d sit on the subways next to complete strangers, closer than if we were on our first date. There was monotony in these daily rides, but moreover there was a poignant sense of isolation. I found myself wanting to know who these people were, hear their stories and break through this isolation. Perhaps it’s because as a studio artist I often work in isolation,  that I felt the need to connect to my audience and to contextualize my work in real time and public space.  This drew me to a desire to learn more about community art and particularly the potential of using art as a tool for enfranchisement and social change within communities. I realized that I had a strong desire to  use my own art to work with those communities and create an exchange of knowledge and empowerment.

Motivated and impassioned to understand the experiences of isolation and marginalization I was drawn to the female artist  community. For the past few semesters I have been exploring gender roles and what it means to be a female artist today. I’m hopeful that my research will help me understand my own art as well as the art of other female artists especially those who engage in public and activist art. This project will provide me with the unique opportunity to study and to work at nexus of community and activist art with a particular emphasis on the subjects of feminism and urban social conditions.

Part of what led me to this field of research was a paper I wrote for my honors community arts seminar last semester on Suzanne Lacy. Lacy’s view of art  and the accessibility of art proved to be a powerful introduction into female activist art. At the same time, I felt that my views on art were very in tune with hers.
 Carolee Shneemann once called herself "A painter who has left the canvas to activate actual space and lived time."  This quote speaks directly to the type of artist I am and am trying to be. I want to be involved as an artist in real spaces.   

Much of the reason Suzanne's art took place in public space, and many other female artists at the time, was because they weren't being shown in the traditional art spaces, i.e. galleries and museums. These women created their own space, and played by their own rules. I was deeply inspired by their use of place and their ability to engage larger audiences outside of the art world. 

A lot of this project revolves around the idea of utilizing public space. I became enchanted with this idea as a kid, when I would drive home from school, looking out the window for something new. I’d get excited if something had been moved or something was a different color. This desire to exist outside of normalcy is common for artists, but shouldn’t we grant everyone the ability to live in a world outside their own? As artists, we can do this. We can create alternative worlds and spaces for everyone to inhabit, we just have to provide the tools.

My introduction to interventionist art began with the work of street artists. Plastering walls with their wheat pastes and graffiti they transformed spaces. Surrounded by a desolate streetscape, a small piece would be revived, something new within a muted world. They continue to create worlds that are right outside our doors.

On another note....

  I was also influenced by the work I did with the WOOP, Women Occupants of Philadelphia. I was dismayed by the dominance of the white male voice and the disenfranchisement of women and minorities in the Occupy Movement. While, I recognized that such an egalitarian movement was antithetical to discrimination on the surface, old problems of authority, marginalization and power remained. Inspired by Lacy, I proposed a relational aesthetics piece that aimed to actualize a space where female participants could share stories of injustice and receive words of empowerment in return. The project proposal centered on women participating in the creation of a quilt, by piecing together squares containing their own comments and illustrations and through the process sharing their stories.

I continued to do work with storytelling this past semester when I created a simple intervention. I put eight pieces of duct tape on the floor to create two separate boxes. I would sit in one box and wait for someone to inhabit the other. Once they sat down, I would ask them to share a story with me and in return could ask me anything they wanted. People really didn't take advantage of that last part. Anyways, the project was successful in that I explored different places, sat with various people, and had many conversations.

More recently I have been working with a colleague on “Femizine,” a monthly zine focusing on feminist issues around particular themes. There is a site where participants can submit poems, stories, and “spreads” relating to their personal perception of women. We are also in the process of reaching out into the general Philadelphia community for their input. We hope to provide an alternative to the mass-media depiction of women, while empowering female identified persons.  I have been engaged in other recent projects which involve the basketry technique of coiling to make sets of female breasts.  The objects were used in a performance piece to catalyze a discussion revolving around sexuality, domesticity, and gender neutrality.

These various projects are proving to be a personal introduction to women making activist art in public spaces. They have also made me realize the lack of knowledge surrounding these women artists.  I am frustrated by the lack of recognition they get for the work that defined an artistic movement. I hope that this project will raise awareness of these women and open up a dialogue between artists working today and the women.

 I transferred to Tyler because of its strong community arts program, urban studies, and excellent painting and sculpture program. The passion and the dedication of my peers and faculty has pushed me to explore the boundaries and assumptions of my own art.  My experiences thus far have drawn me towards these areas of activist and feminist art, but I am hopeful that this research will raise new questions to be answered and new open new pathways for my personal artistic growth.

disclaimer: 

I apologize if any of this is too haphazard. I am a bit jet lagged... but loving LA! I got to my Cousins house today, which is where I will be staying for most of my stay and met my baby second cousin who is four months old and too adorable to handle. Tomorrow, I am going to meet Ms. Lacy at her archives downtown and listen to a lecture she is giving at MOCA.