Feminist Art and Womanhouse

CENTRAL CORE IMAGERY

For Chicago, “central core imagery” describes art that uses the vagina as an icon in female artist’s representations of sexual experiences as women. Put simply: cunt art. Faith Wilding’s article, Feminist Art Programs at Fresno and CalArts, 1970-75 describes it as “as the tendency of female artists to create art focused on a sexual core, or vagina.”  Because women have always been heavily present in the world of male artistry, by blatantly focusing on the vagina as a symbol of female draws attention to issue. Women in art were sexually objectified, and stereotyped into their roles in relation to men. Using various mediums, such as painting, drawing, scripting, and crafting, artists focused on the vagina and used it as an active piece of imagery, combating the objective docility typical of women depicted both in art and everyday life. Their works were the beginning of an entirely new vocabulary for talking about women’s and their bodies, female sexuality, and art. The vagina, and even just being a woman, is despised and demeaned. So by taking the very thing that is so disgusting, so horrible, and making it beautiful and aesthetically pleasing amplifies the female identity.

ESSENTIALISM

In the 1970’s, feminist artists were said to have created a public female experience that was portrayed as universal from their private experiences and labeled essentialist. The real problem stemmed from the fact that because of the described generalizations being assumed, their art was critiqued for creating limitations and alienating groups of women. Furthermore, while feminist artists saw their works of female sexual organs as a way to liberate themselves from the historically imposed patriarchal system, despite criticism. Critiques stated that their depictions further limited women’s identities to their biological components, and therefore weakening their argument. Feminist artists of that time period were heavily criticized for both of these assumptions of their work, despite the fact that neither were the motivations, claims, or intentions. Unfortunately the works were oversimplified and their complexities went unanalyzed, causing the artwork to be labeled as essentialist.

It is important to distinguish between the varying kinds of essentialism because each represents in own viewpoint of feminist artworks. Biological essentialism describes the idea that we (people) behave certain ways and perform certain roles because of our biology and genetic makeup, basically saying a person’s biology determines their life and destiny. Cultural essentialism, the idea also described in The Power of Feminist Art as “social constructionism” explains how society gender-stereotypes the condition of a woman’s being, image and experience. In order to escape these supposedly justified stereotypes, a woman must look to the last kind of essentialism, political essentialism. As PFA states, a women’s art has to be understood and analyzed as a political statement in order to best create equality of societal gender value.  These various types of essentialism allow individuals to view the pieces from varying perspectives and often overlapping frameworks, which therefore creates an entirely new context for their art. It helps us even further expand our appreciation for feminist artists as individuals by opening our eyes and minds to their unique characteristics instead of just as broadly defined women.

In her piece, Flesh Petals, (above) Faith Wildings uses central core imagery to draw attention to the beauty of the vagina. In terms of biological essentialism, the fact that the whole focus of the work is a vagina is meant to draw attention to how women are defined as little more than their body parts. The cultural essentialism of the piece is again, the subjectivity of the vagina.  In present day society and culture, the vagina is seen as taboo, dirty, anddisgusting. By portraying the vagina as a blossoming flower, Wildings uses political essentialism to portray the beauty of the female organ, combating the idea that the vagina is anything but aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, the title, Flesh Petals, even further emphasizes the vagina’s natural beauty and a sense of delicacy that alludes to a strong sense of female intimacy. The piece is so amazing to me because the beauty of the vagina is what gives it influence and power in this situation, which seems to be a contradictory concept for this time period. Female artists of the time wielded the biological symbolism of the vagina into political power.

WOMANHOUSE

Womanhouse was a collaborative feminist art installation a performance stage organized by the Feminist Art Program students at CalArts started by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro. Released to the public in 1972, the mansion acted as spaces for these powerful feminist artists to represent the various experiences women go through as a part of patriarchal society. Each of the rooms had a varying theme, depending on the experience.

In Leah’s Room, created by Karen LeCoq and Nancy Youdelmen, the performance featured a woman applying layers and layers of makeup. The work was “feminist” in its exaggerated expression of the constant pressure females deal with in being forced into permanently looking youthful and staying beautiful as they age. It also touched on the competition women have with each other, each individual trying to be the most beautiful and most attractive, and therefore in sexist terms, achieving the ultimate goal of being the most desirable to male pursuers. The elegance of the room set-up combined with the exaggeration of continuously applying makeup really speaks to the uniqueness and political aim of the piece. The artists said of their work, “We wanted to deal with the way women are intimidated by the culture to constantly maintain their beauty and the feeling of desperation and helplessness once beauty is lost.” In a man’s world, once a woman is no longer beautiful, she has lost significant value.

In another piece installation by Judy Chicago, entitled Menstraution Bathroom, the side is set up as the title would imply. As Chicago described, the bathroom is “very, very white and clean and deodorized” – characteristics patriarchy often expects of women. Cleanliness and purity. The visual draw of the room and subject is the trash can, full of menstrual blood and used pads and tampons, and boldly depicts what women’s bathrooms look like one week a month. Historically, women have always been considered dirty, and impure, because of their menstruation cycle. Chicago goes on to state, “…blood, the only thing that cannot be covered up.” Today, men are particularly disturbed by any woman’s “time of month,” and have little digression in expressing disgust. Phrases like “I don’ trust anything that bleeds for seven days and doesn’t die” are perfect examples of how a woman’s period is seen to be such a negative experience, when really I see it as a rejuvenation of a woman’s body. “However we feel about our own menstruation is how we feel about seeing its image in front of us,” says Chicago. By forcing people who see the installation to look at the bloody trash can, she is forcing women to confront how they feel about their period and hopefully begin to stop seeing it as something to be ashamed of.

Sherry Brody and Miriam Schapiro’s The Dollhouse is a full furnished dollhouse exhibited in Womanhouse that gives insight into the seemingly beautiful, charming, and safe traditional home that women (as is part of their role) are supposed to create for their families. While at first, each of the six rooms appears to be perfect, when a viewer takes a closer look they begin to see the hidden terrors actually hidden inside. Spiders, rattlesnakes, scorpions are all disguised throughout the inside. The dollhouse is elegantly furnished, with heavy lace accents and feminine patterns to make the dollhouse more intimate that only make the contrast of the dangers more startling. The piece as an actually dollhouse emphasizes the concept of women as dolls, who can be positioned and placed into any role as others (patriarchy) sees fit. The dollhouse and perfect family as the subject sheds light on the danger of women being complacent in following their gender roles subscribed to them by socialization and patriarchy. In the same way the viewers must look closer at the dollhouse to discover the little terrors, women must look beyond their own dollhouses to see past the life they have been boxed into.

“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.” — Rebecca West