SHAPING THE WAVE: LGTBIQ + FEMINISM

Tracers

Last Friday, February 14th, I attended the panel “ LGBTIQ + Feminism,” as a part of TRACERS TAKES ON FEMINISM at Three Walls. Tracers hosted an all-day forum in which panel discussions considered feminism’s relationship with/to the LGBTIQ community, Motherhood, and Race. The first panel, moderated by Latham Zearfoss, consisted of Jillian Soto, Daviel Shy, Frederick Moffet, Malic Amalya, Silvia Malagrino, Amina Ross, and NIC Kay.

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SHAPING THE WAVE: LGTBIQ + FEMINISM

Last Friday, February 14th, I attended the panel “ LGBTIQ + Feminism,” as a part of TRACERS TAKES ON FEMINISM at Three Walls. Tracers hosted an all-day forum in which …

Daniel Scott Parker MFA Poetry Daniel Scott Parker, danielsparker@gmail.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Interview with Ariane Cherry of Design Cloud

I’ve been talking to many people about this thing social practice. On this subject, I had the privilege of speaking with someone with a unique perspective and many enlivening comments, Ariane Cherry. Ariane is Gallery Director at Design Cloud LLC.

We discussed social practice as an idea being exchanged between creatives. We touched on public design, urban philanthropy, and the risks associated with socially engaged practices – plus the potential success the endeavor could obtain. Read More below.

Ari_Headshot_1

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Interview with Ariane Cherry of Design Cloud

I’ve been talking to many people about this thing social practice. On this subject, I had the privilege of speaking with someone with a unique perspective and many enlivening comments, …

Arts Management/ Art History Matt Robinson, matthew.robinson1@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Interview: Debra Parr on Fashion-As-Art

Debra Riley Parr, post-presentation

Debra Riley Parr, post-presentation.

Debra Riley Parr is Chair of Fashion Studies and Associate Professor of Art and Design History at Columbia College Chicago. She serves as board member for the College Art Association and has published extensively in books and journals such as FiberartsMerge: Sound, Thought, Image, Ten by Ten: Space for Visual CultureArt and AuctionNew Art Examiner, and Artnews.

Debra served up a fantastic paper at the session À La Mode: The Contemporary Art And Fashion System.  Titled Glitter and Rubble: Chaos to Couture (and Back Again) in the Late Capitalist Fashion and Art Industries her paper addresses the intersection of Fashion and Art in a globalized economy.  Fast-fashion is central to the industry. Designs are copied from the runway and outsourced to production sites in other countries, where they are produced as quickly and cheaply as possible. Alternately, haute couture floods the red carpet and remains the exclusive domain of the hyper-rich.

Debra’s paper compares two events of Spring 2013: the Costume Institute gala celebrating the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Punk: Chaos to Couture and the horrific collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh (a major manufacturing site for Fashion wholesalers) that killed thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers.  The paper’s dialectical image – the glittery excess of the gala poised against the disastrous rubble of the factory collapse – is given further nuance when considering the Met Gala’s choice of theme: PUNK.

Celebs "Performing Punk" at Met Gala 2013

Celebs “Performing Punk” at Met Gala 2013

I’ve been fortunate to work with Debra for the last few months as her research assistant, and her work has shaped much of my thinking regarding Fashion as a site for critical inquiry. I caught up with Debra over coffee to discuss it all for the blog…

MS: To begin, where and how do you see Fashion intersecting with contemporary art and design practices?

DP:  The connection has been there for a long time, but the way we are articulating it is changing. The other Fashion panel at the conference [Re-Examining Fashion in Western Art 1775-1975] is a more traditional investigation of the intersection. One paper discusses a specific dress in a specific painting, and historically, as Gilles Lipovetsky articulates, Fashion really taught people how to see detail. From [Lipovetsky’s] deeply historical perspective, Fashion defined social positions through tiny differentiations in styles of dress. For art historians this is really how we define the close read.

"Fashion And Art" edited by Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas (IMG: Sydney Edu)

“Fashion And Art” edited by Adam Geczy and Vicki Karaminas (IMG: Sydney.edu)

MS: Does Fashion respond to contemporary art or does Fashion shape contemporary art? 

DP: SooJin [fellow panelist SooJin Lee] did a fantastic job of looking at that. And Theodor Adorno, if we are to believe him (and I’m not totally sure that I do), declares that Fashion, in his estimation, has the power to shape all cultural arenas because it is concerned with with the new, with innovation, or what is “A La Mode.”

MS: Or, as you describe in your paper, following the modernist logic of speed and replacement.

DP: Yes. Art has a job – to critique culture. And central to my argument is that Fashion has a hard time being “Art” because it is unaware or unconscious of Art’s project as critique.

MS: I’m thinking now, because one of the panelists discussed it, of the Jay-Z and Marina Ambramovic performance; or the so-called “day performance art died.”  Thinking of it in the context of Fashion as a performance…

DP:   …there is definitely a borrowing from performance art. Like Alexander McQueen. And at the panel, Maud [panel discussant Maud Lavin] was trying to encourage us to think of the everyday, Fashion as an everyday performance. McQueen borrows from performance art.

Dress #13 Spring/Summer 1999, Steve McQueen (IMG: Met Museum)

Dress #13 Spring/Summer 1999, Steve McQueen (IMG: Met Museum)

MS: And McQueen was a student of art history, or, at least aware of Art’s project, right? He was exposed to it as a student? What about other designers who maybe aren’t taught Fashion-as-Art or Fashion-as-critique? 

DP: The education of Fashion designers has not been theoretically or historically grounded enough. But there are other designers too…Viktor & Rolf, Rick Owens

MS: And it is New York Fashion Week right now…anything that has struck you?

DP: I’m following on instagram mostly, and the Central Saint Martin’s graduate showcase was incredible.

MS: Moving into punk–We first met when I took your class titled Object & Image: Post-Punk Studies and  your paper addresses the ironic choice of punk as a theme for the Met Gala. In our class, we read Dick Hebdige’s Subculture: The Meaning of Style, and examined punk Fashion as a semiotic practice. What draws you to punk as a field of study?

Greil Marcus's "Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century" (IMG: Harvard Univ Press)

Greil Marcus’s “Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century” (IMG: Harvard Univ Press)

DP: Well I really, really, really love Greil Marcus’s Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century because it combines my interests in the historical avant-garde and punk. He sees punk as furthering the social disruptions of Dada. I also personally love the graphic design – Jamie Reed, Malcolm Garrett, Barney Bubbles, 4AD. When I interviewed for my job at Columbia they asked me to give an example of how I would teach something in the classroom, so I played the Buzzcocks’ Autonomy.

MS: Is anyone today continuing the project that Hebdige started, or doing a semiotic reading of fashion?

DP: In cultural studies certainly, and Hebdige is ubiquitous in the academy.

MS: What about Fashion under late-capital – What are the current problems related to the Fashion industry in this economic model?

DP: Certainly the problem of hidden subcontracting processes [in manufacturing]. Capital will flow to unregulated sites. It begs the question – Who is in charge? The state? The labels? Who bears responsibility?

Mohammed Sohel Rana (IMG: BBC)

Mohammed Sohel Rana (IMG: BBC)

MS: Which is why I love the moment in your paper when you address the scape-goating of Mohammed Sohel Rana, the owner of the Rana factories, as if his arrest resolved the problem. It is similar to punk really, the Met Gala appears to “cleanse punk.”

DP: And there is a rich history of trying to make punk safe for consumption. The Met is the ultimate situation of that. And don’t get me wrong, I loved the exhibit.

MS: Why? What did you love about it?

DP:  I often really love the things that need the most critique. Like fast-fashion, TopShop, it’s fun to shop there. And at the exhibit I loved seeing these garments up close, all in one place. And I really love the idea of punk having this energizing effect. Imagine yourself as a designer, fashion demands something new, something exciting.

MS: So what is selling-out?

DP: Just because some one adopts you doesn’t mean that you’ve sold out. Should I be critiqued for using or adapting punk in my classroom? Is it a sell-out for the lead singer of Sonic Youth to be at the Met Gala, or for Vivienne Westwood to become a dame?

MS: Why do you think people have such a problem with that?

DP: It seems disconcerting – it’s like how I love looking at the Karl Lagerfeld “punk” suit he designed for Chanel.  Chanel is luxe, elegance. For me that suit is the object that speaks to all of this.  It is exciting, it is a tour de force, it’s wonderful- and it is just all wrong.

 

Coco Chanel in the "Chanel Suit" (IMG: Wonderland Magazine)

Coco Chanel in the “Chanel Suit” (IMG: Wonderland Magazine)

Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols (IMG: The Daily Mail)

Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols (IMG: The Daily Mail)

Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel (IMG: David Sims/Vogue)

Model wearing Karl Lagerfeld’s Punk Suit, designed for fashion label Chanel (IMG: David Sims/Vogue)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interview: Debra Parr on Fashion-As-Art

Debra Riley Parr is Chair of Fashion Studies and Associate Professor of Art and Design History at Columbia College Chicago. She serves as board member for the College Art Association and has published …

BA Art History '13 Meg Santisi, megsantisi@gmail.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

The M Words: Thoughts on Motherhood and Masculinity in CAA’s feminism

During the Feminist Art Project’s series of panels themed “The M Word: Motherhood and Representation,” panelists discussed issues of maternity, the maternal body, and motherhood in art and for practicing artists. Amidst the radical reclamation of arts and family life, lactative performance art, images of the devouring Mother popularized by Disney, etc., Miriam Schaer presented her work on the stigma of women without children. While this might seem inconsistent with the theme, Schaer mentions that these seemingly contrasting states of motherhood/childlessness are illusory distractions from the larger issues at hand including how women’s bodies understood/evaluated, issues of external validation, procreation, and what it means to be a child as well as a mother.

The Feminist Art Project used the complicated issue of maternity to problematize how those who are parents, those who are not, and those in between can unite under a common but diverse feminist agenda. It revisits the crucial and continual question of how to challenge oppression in the face of a multitude of diverse and different realities. After all, arbitrary and reductive understandings of “womanhood” and “feminism” have only ever been exclusions and harmful to a vision of social justice.

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The M Words: Thoughts on Motherhood and Masculinity in CAA’s feminism

During the Feminist Art Project’s series of panels themed “The M Word: Motherhood and Representation,” panelists discussed issues of maternity, the maternal body, and motherhood in art and for practicing …

Interdisciplinary Arts and Media First Year MFA Julynn Wilderson, wilderpedia@gmail.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

5 Exhibitions To See Before Bidding Chicago Adieu

As the conference is starting to round out here at the Hilton I give you 5 must see exhibitions to experience before leaving Chicago!

Faith Wilding: Fearful Symmetries Retrospective at Threewalls

Still from Faith Wilding’s “Waiting” performance as seen in the 1974 film “Womanhouse” by Johanna Demetrakas, (1974, USA, 47 min.) (courtesy of Johanna Demetrakas and Three Walls Gallery)

Still from Faith Wilding’s “Waiting” performance as seen in the 1974 film “Womanhouse” by Johanna Demetrakas, (1974, USA, 47 min.) (courtesy of Johanna Demetrakas and Three Walls Gallery)

RISK: Empathy, Art and Social Practice at Gallery Curtain Gallery

Cheryl Pope, Remember to Remember, 36 X 47 X 2" Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery. Photo Credit: James Prinz Photography, 2013.

Cheryl Pope, Remember to Remember, 36 X 47 X 2″ Courtesy of the artist and Monique Meloche Gallery. Photo Credit: James Prinz Photography, 2013.

The Fifth Dimension at Logan Center Gallery

Installation view: The Fifth Dimension at Logan Center Gallery, featuring work by Pieter Vermeersch (background), and (from left to right) Geof Oppenheimer, Tauba Auerbach and Karl Holmqvist. Photo: Jim Prinz

Installation view: The Fifth Dimension at Logan Center Gallery, featuring work by Pieter Vermeersch (background), and (from left to right) Geof Oppenheimer, Tauba Auerbach and Karl Holmqvist. Photo: Jim Prinz

The Way of the Shovel: Art As Archeology at MCA Chicago

Derek Brunen, Production still from Plot, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.

Derek Brunen, Production still from Plot, 2007. Courtesy of the artist.

William J. O’Brien at MCA Chicago 

Installation view, William J. O'Brien, MCA Chicago, 2014. Left: Untitled, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York; right: Untitled, 2007. Collection of Dana Westreich Hirt. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

Installation view, William J. O’Brien, MCA Chicago, 2014. Left: Untitled, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York; right: Untitled, 2007. Collection of Dana Westreich Hirt. Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago

5 Exhibitions To See Before Bidding Chicago Adieu

As the conference is starting to round out here at the Hilton I give you 5 must see exhibitions to experience before leaving Chicago! Faith Wilding: Fearful Symmetries Retrospective at Threewalls RISK: …

BA Art History '14 La Keisha Leek, La.Leek@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Samantha Hill: On RISK, Artist As Archivist and Arts Education

The much awaited opening of RISK: Art, Empathy, and Social Practice curated by Amy Mooney and Neysa Page-Lieberman, with curatorial assistance from Marcela Andrade happened last night at the Glass Curtain Gallery! I was able to snag artist and activist Samantha Hill to talk about her participation. It is also of note to mention that for those of you who will be out and about tomorrow, Samantha’s satellite exhibition Topographical Depictions of the Bronzeville Renaissance is on view at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Samantha Hill. Image Credit: SAIC Spotlights

Samantha Hill. Image Credit: SAIC Spotlights

La Keisha Leek: Who is Samantha Hill?

Samantha Hill: Samantha Hill is a transdisciplinary artist from Chicago, IL with an emphasis on archives, oral story collecting, social projects & art facilitations.  The focus of my art is to investigate how memory, location and history intersect within society by collecting oral narratives & personal historic ephemera. Public participation is an important component of my artistic process.  I invite individuals as well as communities to collaborate with me in developing new work by collecting personal story and/or photography donations.  By assuming the role of artist as archivist/Socio-Cultural Anthropologist, I apply my research to construct multi-media installations & performances within landmark buildings and community spaces for public interaction.  The location is transformed into an immersive environment, which act as a conductor between the viewer, the narratives/ephemera and location.  I foster collaboration with artists from diverse practices as a part of my creative process.

LL: Tell me about your presence in RISK: Empathy, Art and Social Practice and how the work for you ties in to the ideas of empathy and socially engaged art?

SH: My project for RISK is to investigate the current cultural renaissance occurring in Bronzeville.  The basis of my work is to collect untold histories of a community to represent to the public in a poetic way.  I begin this process by collecting interviews about significant events in a person’s life.  I usually ask general questions during my interviews that allow the participant to share details about their life which they believe are important to the project’s theme.  I usually discover important details about historic moments by using this interview technique.

A Jeli's Tale:  An Anthology of Kinship. Photo credit:  Meredith Jones/McColl Center for Visual Art

Great Migration (installation with Faheem Majeed’s How to Build A Shack). Image Credit: Tony Smith.

I also ask community members to allow me to access their personal photography archives to build conceptual self-portraits of the interview participant.  This process allows me to connect with the interviewee to share their stories, memories and philosophies in a multi-media artwork.

LL: I believe it is significant to note the artists in RISK all have Chicago-based practices. What is your Chicago and how has that part of you affected or influenced your work as an artist?

SH: I am originally from Philadelphia, which is a city of neighborhoods.  Chicago is also a city of neighborhoods and I have explored several communities since I moved here.  Each neighborhood has it’s own culture.  I love to interact with people from these communities to discover what engages their interests.  These conversations inspire new visual concepts as well as public engagement processes for my work.

A Jeli's Tale:  An Anthology of Kinship. Photo credit:  Meredith Jones/McColl Center for Visual Art

A Jeli’s Tale: An Anthology of Kinship. Photo credit: Meredith Jones/McColl Center for Visual Art

LL: As a practicing artist, why do you feel it is important to work in arts education?

SH: As an artist/educator, I have an opportunity to conduct engaging discussions about the construction of visual culture with my students.  This allows my students to evaluate the significance of how information is transmitted to the public and how the arts are an integral part of that system.  My goal as an instructor is to inspire my students to add their creative concepts and philosophies to visual culture to contribute to the exchange of ideas.

LL: What exhibitions or programs going on during CAA would you recommend to conference attendees?

SH: Jan Tichy: aroundcenter, a site-specific exhibition composed of nine installations, each of which stands on its own, yet at the same time relate, deriving from and leading to the others. Through this exhibition, Tichy will lead visitors to a more integrated experience of the Chicago Cultural Center, including access to unrevealed areas and resources of the building. Using light as his primary expressive tool – through a variety of media including photography, sculpture, video and video projection – Tichy illuminates and makes accessible the history and current mission of the landmark building.

Samantha Hill: On RISK, Artist As Archivist and Arts Education

The much awaited opening of RISK: Art, Empathy, and Social Practice curated by Amy Mooney and Neysa Page-Lieberman, with curatorial assistance from Marcela Andrade happened last night at the Glass Curtain …

BA Art History '14 La Keisha Leek, La.Leek@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Mirror Mirror On the Wall: The Speculative Fatimah White at CAA

Artist Fatimah White at the Chicago Hilton during CAA.

Artist Fatimah White at the Chicago Hilton during CAA.

It is day 3 here at CAA. After sitting in on tons of presentations with thoughtful Q&A sessions, I found a moment for another kind of looking. Sitting on the second floor near the Grand Ballroom of the Chicago Hilton (I’ve found this to be my most productive spot for writing and thought gathering) peering through the bannister… people watching essentially, a young woman ascends the staircase in a dress that a bit out of place for the lobby. She stops and poses for the camera/cameraman accompanying her. I watched people watching her, taking photos themselves, and the cameraman (which I learned to be her partner) taking photos of them. This was an interesting shift of gears from sessions.

I watched for several minutes before leaning over the bannister to greet her hello. When I was made aware this was a performance, I decided to pull her aside for a quick interview

La Keisha Leek: Tell me your name and a little bit about your practice.

Fatima White: My name is Fatima White and I’m from New York. My practice right now is about beauty. I’m working on a project called Beauty and Reflections. It’s about the reflection you see in the mirror, and reflecting that on the outside. It’s one part visual and one part performance. I create pieces to wear as well as wear vintage recyclable dresses out in public and pretty much reflecting me. I am a huge fashionista and I love costumes and theatrics.

Fatimah White presents Hidden Beauty at the 2013 NYC winter residency. Photo credit: Transart

Fatimah White presents Hidden Beauty at the 2013 NYC winter residency. Photo credit: Transart

LL: What is your background?

FW: My background is in painting. I have a bachelors in fine arts and arts education with a focus on painting and anthropology. My work is mixed media, with fabric, cloth and all type of material. But I also like fashion. In undergrad I did a fashion show and painting show every year. So when I get to my MFA I realized my project would be about fashion. Now I’m at this MFA program called Transart Institute. They actually had a couple of sessions here. It’s a Low-Residency MFA program based out of the UK, but we have classes and residencies in Berlin and Brooklyn every year. I’ll be in Berlin this summer. This will be my second year in the program and then I’ll have one more year in the MFA program Creative Practice.

LL: What brought you to CAA, was it specifically for this performance to prepare for the Berlin residency?

FW: It was to prepare for the residency, but I’m also an educator, and I work at the African American Museum in Long Island. So I wanted to come here for museum studies as well as other things that related to my practice. There are different sessions on fashion and public art that I want to see.

I also wanted to learn a lot more and meet new people and network. And I drew attention with my dress; otherwise I wouldn’t have met you! Everybody here’s an artist or loves art in some way. I decided to wear art on the outside today.

LL: In what ways does CAA’s annual conference beneficial for emerging art historians, curators and artists?

FW: I think it’s important to meet other people in the field because that’s the only way you learn. In my career in museum education, meeting new people in the arts, learning from other artist, art historians and professors, was how I was able to do learn how to do what I do within museums. I did an internship at the Brooklyn Museum working part-time with their Hands-On Art Saturday. I learned a lot from the Brooklyn Museum and it was only a fall internship, but I kind of wanted to have more of that, so that’s why I came here. I want to always stay immersed in the arts, especially on the collegiate level.

LL: What exhibitions or programs going on during CAA are you looking forward to attending while in Chicago?

 FW: Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair at the Chicago History Museum

Mirror Mirror On the Wall: The Speculative Fatimah White at CAA

It is day 3 here at CAA. After sitting in on tons of presentations with thoughtful Q&A sessions, I found a moment for another kind of looking. Sitting on the …

BA Art History '14 La Keisha Leek, La.Leek@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

The future is so bright, we gotta design better shades for everyone

What is the role of artists, creative thinkers and innovators in navigating the rapidly approaching and sometimes dismal looking future? I chatted with Mat Rappaport who is co-chairing the panel “Designing a Better Future: A Participatory Platform for Exchange.”

Co-chair Mat Rappaport. Image Courtesy of Columbia College Chicago.

Co-chair Mat Rappaport. Image Courtesy of Columbia College Chicago.

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The future is so bright, we gotta design better shades for everyone

What is the role of artists, creative thinkers and innovators in navigating the rapidly approaching and sometimes dismal looking future? I chatted with Mat Rappaport who is co-chairing the panel “Designing …

Interdisciplinary Arts and Media First Year MFA Julynn Wilderson, wilderpedia@gmail.com
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605

Kirsten Leenaars: Aesthetics and Social Practice

I had the pleasure of conversing with artist Kirsten Leenaars. We talked social practice, aesthetic, people, the post office, and what’s next for Leenars. As one of the artists involved in the exhibition RISK: Empathy, Art, and Social Practice – which is open Feb 10th – April, 26th, at Glass Curtain Gallery – I thought it appropriate to get her take on the complicated practice of a socially engaged artist. Leenaars will exhibit in the RISK, the exhibition featuring contemporary artists whose work “invites the outside in,” blurring “the lines between public and private space.” Click Read more for the full interview.

Kirsteen Leenars (left) and Lise Baggesen in Boulevard Dreamers

Kirsten Leenaars (left) and Lise Baggesen in Boulevard Dreamers

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Kirsten Leenaars: Aesthetics and Social Practice

I had the pleasure of conversing with artist Kirsten Leenaars. We talked social practice, aesthetic, people, the post office, and what’s next for Leenars. As one of the artists involved in the …

Arts Management/ Art History Matt Robinson, matthew.robinson1@loop.colum.edu
600 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605