Articles, Book Chapters, Essays, etc.
Reconciling Art and Mothering
From the Karen Photo Series (2007-present).
I recently wrote a book chapter called, In Search of Mother, that is part of a larger anthology entitled Reconciling Art and Mothering edited by Rachel Epp Buller. This publication is available from Ashgate, so be sure to pick up your copy. It has been a fantastic learning experience and I am so grateful to be a part of it! My essay, In Search of Mother, is about the work I began in 2007 centered around mothering a fictional box baby named Karen.
Here is an excerpt:
"...The day I found her, I came across a long shipping box teetering off the side of a recycling bin. Instinctively, I responded by hurrying to prevent this box from falling to the ground. I found humor in this gesture almost immediately. Personifying my interaction with this non-living object was immediately associated in my mind with the natural reaction one might have to save an actual living baby from falling. I was aware of my strange interpretation, and it took hold as I wondered how I could further manifest this personification.
My own willingness to suspend disbelief and turn fantasy into reality, the same experience that I would later require of my audience, led me to begin at the beginning. I documented this birthing event in my video, making a baby...."
Here is an excerpt:
"...The day I found her, I came across a long shipping box teetering off the side of a recycling bin. Instinctively, I responded by hurrying to prevent this box from falling to the ground. I found humor in this gesture almost immediately. Personifying my interaction with this non-living object was immediately associated in my mind with the natural reaction one might have to save an actual living baby from falling. I was aware of my strange interpretation, and it took hold as I wondered how I could further manifest this personification.
My own willingness to suspend disbelief and turn fantasy into reality, the same experience that I would later require of my audience, led me to begin at the beginning. I documented this birthing event in my video, making a baby...."
Man as Object - Reversing the Gaze
Still from Playing Peter (2007, 11 minutes 37 seconds).
I wrote a catalogue essay for Man as Object - Reversing the Gaze. SOMArts, The Kinsey Institute Gallery, and the Women's Caucus for Art have done lots of great work putting these shows together! My video, Playing Peter, is being shown as part of this traveling exhibition. I am so excited to be a part of this catalogue and the shows! My essay is called Challenging the Gaze. Here is an excerpt:
"... The position of this exhibition, reversing the gaze, is another possibility for fighting something so ingrained. With men placed in the position of spectacle, male audiences will now encounter their own likenesses mirrored back at them and are then faced with all the implications of that viewing. Will they experience themselves as passive sex objects or as something different altogether? What will they make of their masculinity? What connections will be made to the oppression engendered by their male gaze? Given the socialization of men, can they even experience a true reversal?
Speaking only for myself and of my own artistic practice, I propose that one good starting point for effective reversal might be found in work that employs Bakhtin's carnivalesque laughter because of its revolutionary and communal spirit ..."
Please order the catalogue at www.lulu.com beginning November 5, 2011.
"... The position of this exhibition, reversing the gaze, is another possibility for fighting something so ingrained. With men placed in the position of spectacle, male audiences will now encounter their own likenesses mirrored back at them and are then faced with all the implications of that viewing. Will they experience themselves as passive sex objects or as something different altogether? What will they make of their masculinity? What connections will be made to the oppression engendered by their male gaze? Given the socialization of men, can they even experience a true reversal?
Speaking only for myself and of my own artistic practice, I propose that one good starting point for effective reversal might be found in work that employs Bakhtin's carnivalesque laughter because of its revolutionary and communal spirit ..."
Please order the catalogue at www.lulu.com beginning November 5, 2011.