DOUBLE BIND:
Works Referenced:
Lipstick, Needle,
Forks, Scissors
One of the feminist theories that I related to deeply was
the concept of the Double Bind, discussed by many feminists (including Linda
Alcoff, Catherine MacKinnon and Judith Butler).
The double bind is defined as a situation in which to
declare one’s desires or to take a stand is also to step into a trap or a
predefined place of oppression. For many feminists, simply declaring themselves
“feminine” constitutes a kind of double bind as the word is associated with negative
qualities like docility, weakness, emotional hysteria, oversensitivity
etc. Some feminists want to own some
female qualities, like increased emotional sensitivity, while others eschew
these qualities as representing weakness.
I find a lot of the activities that women engage in, and
that I myself engage in, to constitute a sort of double bind: a place of power
or recreation that might be harming the subject. These feminine activities are not really
activities owned by women, but rather adopted roles owned by the historical
definition of women’s place in society.
I hoped by combining objects in “doubles” I could show how
our pursuit of a sanctioned femininity can
o
harm us
(sewing scissors),
o
unable to care for ourselves or feed a
deeper sense of identity (forks)
o
have us running
in circles unable to accomplish anything outside of domestic engagement
(needles)
o
render us
more relevant as useless decorative objects that people of import
(lipstick).
The mirrored quality of these pieces is also meant to
reference our own complicity in this role play- we are simply mirroring what
has been handed to us to act out in order to feel a sense of power through
belonging. Ultimately this power is oppressive, renders us functionless or
promotes self-harm.
INGROWN
Works Referenced:
Heels
In this piece, I wanted to again show how women function as
both subject and object when it comes to their own oppression. I chose the
iconic red heel, a stiletto I found online with a 6 inch heel, which is
ridiculous. This heel “elevates” the woman to the icon of sex symbol which is a
demotion in disguise. It is also physically harmful: by wearing such a
ridiculous piece of equipment, women are shouting that their power comes
through sexual allure, and that they are willing to mutilate their feet and
backs to become objects of desire.
I myself wear heels on occasion and many women choose other
methods of beautification that men do not have to engage in because their
source of power does not come from being objectified as decorative or sexual.
In this case the heel is a stand-in for things like makeup, hair, tight
clothing, excessive dieting, or plastic surgery.
The heel coming back through the shoe is meant to showcase
it as ridiculous, an object of torture, on a superficial level.
On a deeper level, I wanted to reference the body, blurring
the line between what we choose to don and who we choose to be. The roles we
play can grow back in on us and become a part of our identity rather than just
costumes we put on: they can also become harmful, festering over time,
weakening us from within.
In this piece outer becomes inner, wounding in the process,
but we are complicit in our choice to let this happen.
In a more positive light, I also wanted to challenge the
duality presented or accepted between inner and outer, subject and object
(referring to action performed or received) and object/thing and self. I was
inspired by 2 quotes from Nancy Hartsock, referring to uniqueness of the female
perspective to operate along a continuum, rather than experience a duality when
it comes to the aforementioned.
“Women experience others and themselves along
a continuum whose dimensions are evidenced in Adrienne Rich’s argument that the
child carried for nine months can be defined “neither as me or as not-me,” and she argues that inner and outer
are not polar opposites but a continuum.”
Nancy
Hartsock, The Feminist Standpoint
“There are a
series of boundary challenges inherent in the female physiology –challenges
which make it impossible to maintain rigid separation from the object world.
Menstruation, coitus, pregnancy, childbirth, lactation – all represent
challenges to bodily boundaries.”
Nancy
Hartsock, The Feminist Standpoint
BIND/LOCK
Works Referenced:
Handcuffs
Hair Web
Mop
Dress
This series of work is a continuation of the aforementioned
themes of complicity, oppression, and role-play.
I have long been fascinated with hair and how women’s hair
(locks), which is long and frequently requires a lot of maintenance, is an
outward symbol of how we function as sex objects. Men usually sport short hair,
a direct indication of the fact that they are doing rather than showing.
To see what it might be like to be a woman operating outside
of the regular gender roles, in which long hair is considered not just
feminine, but a visible declaration of gender identity, I shaved my head this
summer and used my hair to create the hair web, woven with a needle, and the
handcuffs.
The handcuffs are a direct commentary on whether or not our
long hair is binding us to a role that is oppressive as sexual objects. I also
like how object and body were intertwined in this piece.
This notion of being bound by feminine practices is also
examined in the dress piece that functions as a straightjacket when viewed from
behind.
The mop also uses the continuum between body, object and
domestic tradition to ask exactly who we are “using” when we decide to abide by
traditional gender roles, which we can become a slave to.
Lastly I wove a web with my hair because I am fascinated
with the web as a symbol and weaving as a positive and negative female
tradition. From Arachne to Philomela, the web is a symbol of cunning and
industry. It is one of the few things in nature that functions as both a trap
and a home. This is how I view the role of the tradition woman: it is a place
to belong, but it is also a trap. Weaving, sewing, textiles, all traditional
activities for the housewife or future bride, are also skills to be proud of or
instruments of oppression in their restriction to a certain sphere, keeping
women in the home away from politics, real world industry etc.
I liked the notion of a web too, to represent relationships,
between women and their families, their friends, and even between generations.
These relationships support us but tie us together in ways that are difficult
to escape from.
Finally, I felt like the web was an excellent metaphor (and
was in mythology as well) for storytelling. In this way, women’s relationships
to words, objects, and other people are not linear and independent, but
multi-directional, complex, and inter-related.
HEIRLOOM
Works Referenced:
Teacups
Plate broken in
spider web pattern
Heirloom is also related to personal memories, very precious
to me, of my mother’s china and the occasions we used it. My mother was an
incredible chef, and was raised in the South, to believe that holidays deserved
large and formal family gatherings with gourmet quality food, and that every
dinner our family would eat together in the dining room at a large polished oak
table underneath a crystal chandelier. I loved the pomp and circumstance of
Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners as well as the frequent dinner parties with
my mother’s friends. For each of these, my mother’s wedding china was brought
out from its glass corner cabinet and the silver was polished to serve the
guests.
I loved the story of the China. We had two sets: one that my
mother inherited from my grandmother, which had the same gilt and blue pattern
as the set purchased for my mother’s dowry (for lack of a better word). I like
the idea that my mother was not just inheriting a set of objects, but a set of
roles, expectations and even relationships.
I feel both positively and negatively about this. On the one hand, the
china clearly states that women are meant to serve others in the home, and
their decorative nature is a metaphor for the woman as decorative object. On
the other hand, they represent a unique skill for bringing people together to
strengthen bonds over delicious food served beautifully.
I used the web symbolism again, 3d modeling the plates in
over 40 pieces each, applying a China decal designed from the memory of my
mother’s China, glued back together.
Again the web here represents complex relationships between my mother
and her friends and family and between generations, and the idea of domestic
activity as home-making and a trap. I called it Heirloom because the role of
cook, server, mother, and hostess was one she inherited from my grandmother,
who excelled at each in the Southern tradition. The loom is also a reference to
the web.
The teacups are another reference to my mother, based on my
memories. This piece speaks of domestic activity as something that could
represent a binding trap but also as something intimate and intertwined. I
think of ladies (without day jobs) chatting in the living room when I look at
these. These were also a direct commentary on my relationship with my own
mother: the ways in which she expects me to be a women can be oppressive
sometimes, but our female bond is one that is everlasting, supportive, inescapable
and close in a way that no other relationship can be.
COMMUNION
Works Referenced:
3d printed Chalice
with breast and baby contours
“Western society is still possessed overtly and
subliminally by Christian symbolism, and this State of Possession has extended
its influence over most of the planet. Its ultimate symbol of processions is
the all male trinity itself. Of obvious significance here is the fact that this
is an image of the procession of a divine son from a divine father (no mother
or daughter involved).”
– Mary
Daly, Prelude to the First Passage
I am interested in how religion, in particular Christianity
and Catholicism, has taken the male body and elevated it to the status of holy
by endowing it with all of the qualities naturally performed by the female
body. At the same time they have taken other bodily practices and natural urges
and made them synonymous with sin, guilt, or evil.
I feel that women, whose reproductive capacities have been
re-appropriated to a male deity, have also been reduced in status to not much
better than chattel because of their real connections to nature through their
own bodily functions: sex, menstruation, lactation, and birth.
I used the form of a chalice to reacquaint the viewer with
the processes, unique to women, of childbirth and life giving, that are
miraculous in and of themselves and frequently overlooked.
I also have strong memories of going to church and receiving
the communion in an old gilt cup. I loved the weight of the cup, the thrilling
feeling of being able to drink wine, and the rich and comforting notion that
the wine represented the body of another. It always warmed my stomach, and made
me feel like someone was holding me.
I wanted to convey these same qualities of feeding the body
with the body, but bring them back to their rightful owners, mothers. I loved making such a natural and simple
process something to be worshipped, valued and held sacred. I liked the idea of
the warmth of the milk and the heat of the wine being similar. I also like the
idea of the colors of white and red representing blood and milk, rather than
wine and wafer. This piece was meant to function as a critique of all male
Christian Holy delineation and a reminder of the intimate connection unique to
mother and child.
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