As I have engaged in these various interviews, I've noticed that there seem to be a few central themes that weave in and out of these women's practice. Since I am in a position of contextualizing my own practice, I have found ways to connect through these larger themes.
Here is the list:
History, Organizing, Storytelling, Gender, Language, Class, Empathy
Growing up within a fairly homogenous class population, I rarely thought about class as an issue. That may have been because my family was upper middle class and so were all our neighbors. When I moved to Brooklyn, I was exposed to a varied class population, but was still within the bubble of an elite art school. As I hear about these women's experiences, many of whom grew up in working class family, I feel that I lack the "clout" they have. Who am I do be doing this work? What communities can I engage with where I don't look like the white missionary? What is characterized as missionary work?
Also what class do I actually belong to, and how important is that within my work?
I am in the process of writing my class narrative and finding my community.
Gender roles were more apparent growing up. I have been lucky to always have a strong female role model in my life, my mother. So as a child I saw no real distinction between me and my male counterparts. In high school feminism was viewed as a dirty word.... even sometimes in college it is viewed that way as well. People are quick to negate the word because they believe females have gained full equality. I look to these women as female mentors to guide me through the process of becoming a female artist. And yet, there is a slight generational gap. Where are my feminist peers?
to be continued.
Interesting piece about CLASS in the US. Wonder how this would translate to people who have chosen to become artists, especially artists not traditionally "privileged" in this field, that are not white and male.
ReplyDeleteSee link:
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/wealth-poverty/two-thirds-americans-arent-economically-mobile
Good quote from the book "Third Wave Feminism" edited by Gillis Stacy.
ReplyDeleteIt rises the complicities of the very notion of what constitutes a feminist today:
As Misha Kavka notes, ‘[f]eminism is not...the object of a singular history but, rather, a term under which people have in different times and places invested in a more general struggle for social justice and in so doing have participated in and produced multiple histories’