The feminist diaspora has been clearly
illustrated by contemporary female artists such as Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Jordan
Casteel, Mickalene Thomas, Marina Abramovic, and Barbara Kruger. They argue
that there are various barriers to gender equality, and they vary based on the
age and identity of women. Intersectional feminism described that women of
color faced more threats in life due to neglect and harassment as compared to
white women. Intersectional feminism is used by the artists to describe the
problems of gender equality, harassment, neglect, and identity facing women
across the world at varying levels. Even Judy Chicago advanced the ideas of
feminism in The Dinner Party to
reveal the issues that faced women through contemporary art.
 |
| The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago, 1974-79 |
The Dinner Party analysis of feminism began in the 1960s. In most cases, feminism did not get support in society and further lacked economic help. Judy Chicago was among the pioneers of feminism to assist women to obtain the same rights as men. However, there were major failures that faced feminism due to a lack of support in society. Judy used red colors in her work to indicate the danger that faced women in their daily lives (Chicago, 44). The term dinner party meant a group of women ate well as they discussed issues facing them. The triangular shape of the table, which long in history has the three-sided shape represented unity, divinity and echoes the holy trinity.
 |
| Stop Telling Women to Smile, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, 2010 |
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is a female artist born
in America. She is best known for her project known as Stop Telling Women to
Smile, to address the ongoing women’s street harassment and violence
that her victims endure. (Fazlalizadeh,
34). The women are drawn in person and she transforms their portraits
into wheatpaste posters and places them in public spaces to directly address
the public and the behavior directly. Gender equity and creating a voice for women
is the main target that the artist wanted to echo in her artwork to ensure that
women will be treated with respect. Her work has become increasingly popular
and has been seen in different cities all over the nation, Mexico and overseas.
The posters have also been translated into other languages and create the
dialogue on how women must protect and support one another.
 |
| Portrait of Mnonja, Mickalene Thomas, 2010 |
Mickalene Thomas is an artist that
creates portraits using what are deemed untraditional materials such as enamel,
sequins, glue, and rhinestones. In the Portrait of Mnoja, she depicts power
through body language, pattern, and color. Thomas has depicted this political
figure in a very unorthodox way and breaks from the formal standard of what political
portraits are intended to look like. The work also exposes the identity of the
black women to show that they are also significant, powerful and are capable of
holding status. (Thomas, 40).
The vivid pattern used in the art, as well as the texture, is meant to add more
drama to the work of the artist. Glitter and sequins are the traditional
materials that are sued by the author to create a unique decoration of the
models. Rhinestones, as used in the art, act as a metaphor to describe the
female beauty commodities that are applied to create a unique identity among
females.
 |
| Twins (Subway), Jordan Casteel, 2018 |
Jordan is an American female artist
who is known to create paintings of friends, family and even strangers she
encounters in her travels. Most, if not all of her subjects, are people of
color and her work tells a story to the audience about how people of color
occupy space in public places without directly engaging the viewer. The way
many of her portraits are posed and developed continue to push the dialogue of
blackness through her figurative works by creating paintings of men that allow
them to be soft, a characteristic that is shunned and discouraged by society as
a trait for men to have. Her painting of the young girls above in Twins shows the unique perspective of the work and the lack of the gaze back at the viewer.
 |
| Carrying the Skeleton, Marina Abramovic, 2008 |
Marina Abramovic is a Serbian artist, filmmaker,
and writer. The kind of art she describes focuses on the endurance of the craft
and issues of feminism and the relationship between people in society through her creative and often daring public art performances. The
artist also addressed intersectional feminism to imply the different forms of
gender inequality and the barriers that faced women's success in Serbia. She
used the art to test the connection between mental and physical. In the above figure, carrying the
skeleton, the artist uses the performance of nude with the frame, which
indicated an actual confrontation with death. As per Buddhist traditions, it
was vital to sleep with skeletons to meditate death and life. The white color
of the frame implies humans should have peace and not be afraid of mortality (Abramović, 25). The black color
in the large section of the art shows a big fear among people, especially
regarding death. The male painting in the literature is carrying the skeleton
slowly because everyone fears to die. She teaches males and females to work on
improving their dignity. The human race, both male and female should be
courageous and therefore are taught not to fear death and mortality.
 |
| Your Body is a Battleground, Barbara Kruger, 1989 |
Barbara Kruger is an American born conceptual artist. She focuses on issues
of cultural construction regarding power, sexuality, identity, and power. In
art, the author wanted to show her success as a female in contemporary art.
Women have been faced with issues of sexuality in America, but her success
meant that the dignity of women should be respected. The use of the red color
indicated the strength and confidence of a woman. (Kruger, 50). Her style is easily recognizable and
graphic. Much of her work consists of black and white photographs overlaid with declarative captions in white on red. The phrases in her work often include personal pronouns such as ‘you’, ‘your’, ‘I’, ‘we’ and ‘they’, addressing cultural constructions of power, identity, and sexuality. I have chosen to look at Barbara Kruger’s work because her use of captions and titles focussed on stereotypes and individuality which I believe is important, especially in art. Kruger’s work aims to announce specific points and issues very bluntly to viewers.
These artists describe significant
issues related to feminism, sexuality, and identity. They continue to create
works that challenge their spectators and allow them to ask questions about
what these themes represent in our own lives. We are slowly making strides to
tell the narrative about the injustices that women face around the world every day.
Works
Cited
Gerhard, J. F. (2013). The Dinner
Party: Judy Chicago and the power of popular feminism, 1970-2007. University of Georgia Press.30
Chicago, Judy. The dinner party.
New York, NY: Penguin, 1996.44
Fazlalizadeh. "Tatyana Fazlalizadeh uses
public art to fight street harassment." Oxygen. com (2016).34
Thomas, Mickalene, Kerry James Marshall, and
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis. Mickalene Thomas. Rhona Hoffman Gallery, 2008.40
Casteel J. "Why an Alice Neel Painting Is
Stuck in This Artist’s Psyche: The painter Jordan Casteel discusses her favorite artwork and the affinity she
feels for its creator." The New York
Times.2018.45
Abramović, Marina, et al. Marina
Abramović: The artist is present. The Museum of Modern Art, 2010.25
Kruger, Barbara, et al. Barbara Kruger.
Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999.50
No comments:
Post a Comment