WACK! The Feminist exhibit in P.S.1

I've always felt that the best art should show rather than tell. Subtlety is everything. So, I wasn't surprised that, on the whole, I didn't appreciate the exhibit at P.S.1. In a lot of ways, I was disappointed when I witnessed certain pieces created during the '60s and '70s. Women wanted to assert their sexuality, and gain a kind of ownership over their body. There's a long artistic tradition (and in our general culture) of treating the woman's body as something precious, delicate, and dainty, as something to be on a pedestal. The feminists seem to have felt that one way to shatter this perspective was to showcase pornography, or do really crude performance pieces. For me, this kind of work furthers the idea of the woman's body as an object -- a sexual object -- rather furthers the idea of female independence or self-ownership.

In terms of the show's relevancy for today's times, the exhibit felt dated. While I was there, I took a rough tally of the audience at the exhibit. An overwhelming majority of the people there were women. I would say I saw probably 3 or 4 men there who weren't with our group from the U of O. So, if the show's goal was to enlighten or to make some noise, induce reform, then it was a moot point; I got the impression that the people at the exhibit seemed to be people who were already aware of this caliber of feminist art and were familiar with the movement. 

However, I'm pretty sure the show wasn't that ambitious; reformation wasn't the goal of the exhibition. It was instead more of a retrospective. Women seem to be entering the world of contemporary art more and more, and this exhibition seemed to serve as a reference point and stood to say, "look how far we've come." 

A few pieces I did really enjoy were those of Yoko Ono and Adrian Piper. They weren't as "in your face." They were quieter pieces; in fact, they were pieces about silence. A friend once told me about this teacher she had in elementary school; in order to quiet the class, this teacher would always whisper. Yelling would only add to the classroom's pandemonium. Whispering made the kids curious, and they would quiet down in order to listen. 

Instead of giving knee jerk, emotive reactions to gender injustice, Piper and Ono seemed to give contemplative, more thoughtful responses to the gender and social issues of their time.  

Below is one of Adrian Piper's photographs documenting Food for the Spirit. This was a solo performance piece where by she subsisted on constant readings of Immanuel Kant, fasting, and living as a hermet. She documented the experience by taking photographs of her body as it deteriorated, and she kept an extensive journal with these photos pasted inside it. 

This is a still from Yoko Ono's  performance "Cut Piece." She sat on a stage, her legs underneath her, and invited members of the audience to come on stage and cut her clothing from her. You watch as she slowly becomes more and more aware of herself and her impending nakedness. She sits silent and helpless as she becomes vulnerable and her clothes fall away. 

It could be seen as a comment on rape, and seen as an almost invitation to witness firsthand the emotions one might go through during that kind of experience. But, being somewhat familiar with Ono's work, and knowing that she is interested in work which tries to dissolve or break down social barriers and assumptions, I would say she is just trying to create a moment of intimacy between she and her audience. She invites the audience to cut off her clothing, to tear away her pretensions in order to see her in a vulnerable state; this creates a bond between she and the audience.

Her work often deals with relationships, and limitations in relationships, and how to create intimacy and bridge these gaps and limitations between people. For instance, I saw her on the Conan O'Brien show once, and she brought to her seat a black sheet. She invited Conan to go under the sheet with her -- only the two of them, no one from the audience could see them -- and under this sheet they could do absolutely whatever they wanted. I'm not sure what they did under there, but I'm pretty sure Conan came out with his shirt off.