Exploration #6 Part II: Planning Individual Lessons within the Unit

Making Room for Women

ENDURING IDEA:

Gender is a culturally constructed idea that has been used to suppress the female artists in the cannon of western art and shapes the way we view, interpret, and create art. 

 LESSON ONE: Why have there been no Great women artists? 

 GRADE OR CLASS: High School/College Art History Survey Course

 TIME ALLOTMENT: 3 Class Discussions

 LESSON SUMMARY: This lesson introduces the gender inequalities that are present in the under representation of women in the history of art. Identifies women throughout history who have been excluded from the cannon and begins the questioning of this practice and challenges students to consider how a feminist lens can change the way we look at art made throughout history. 

 ARTWORKS, ARTISTS and/or ARTIFACTS:

•                Linda Nochlin’s “Why have there been no great women artists?”

•                Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, Encounter V: Gender Matters in Art History 

•                Examples of recognizable and familiar female artists:

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – c. 1652)

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)

Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986)

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)

Judy Chicago (1939)

 KEY CONCEPTS addressed in this lesson:

•       Current and past culture constructs and shapes the way in which we view, interpret, and interact with art.

•       Femininity v Masculinity: Gender is a socially constructed idea that serves to empower the privileged and oppress the marginalized.

 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS addressed in this lesson:

• How has and does culture define the artist and his/her role? Within this definition, who is excluded? What do these exclusions reveal about the culture?
• What is gender? Where do we see evidence of gender in art? Where do we not?
•  What does it mean to be a female artist? How does this impact the way in which art is viewed, how we are taught and expected to view and the expectations we have of artists and art in general?

  
  

  INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS

  History, Writing/Research/English

  
  

  
  

  LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

  Students will:

  ·      Identify and understand gender inequalities in the arts.

  ·      Identify the most familiar/popular female artists and discuss the possible reasons for their recognition and acceptance into the cannon.

  ·      Gain greater insight into women’s history by studying the women included in the Dinner Party.

  ·      Identify the social and political structures that create and impose these inequalities.

  ·      Compare and contrast works and lives of female artists with their male contemporaries.

  ·      Consider how gender influences artistic choices.

  ·      Discuss the contributions of women to the arts and history.

  ·      Identify, research, and create an ongoing list of women in the arts.

  
  

  ASSESSMENT 

  Students will be assessed on participation in discussions and contributions to the ongoing list of women in the arts created by the group. Students will be expected to present their ideas informally to the group in discussion and formally in an "extending the invitation" exercise (similar to that found in Judy Chicago's DPCP). 

  
  

  PREPARATION

  Teacher Research and Preparation:

  Read and become familiar with Linda Nochlin’s “Why have there been no great women artists?” and Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, Article on Feminism &  Encounter V: Gender Matters in Art History.

  Find examples of artists and their work listed in ARTWORKS, ARTISTS and/or ARTIFACTS.

  
  

  
  

  Resources: 

   Linda Nochlin’s “Why have there been no great women artists?”

  Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, Encounter V: Gender Matters in Art History 

Exploration #6 Part I: Contemporary Art as Public Pedagogy Curricula

Making Room for Women

Enduring Idea: Gender is a culturally constructed idea that has been used to suppress the female artist in the cannon of western art.

Overview: Making Room for Women addresses the underrepresentation of women in the arts across the western history of art. Diverging from the traditional path of the art history survey course, this unit will call attention to this disparity in representation, reveal gender inequality, highlight women in the arts, and discuss their place and influence in the movements of which they are situated.

Lesson 1: Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists (Linda Nochlin)

Key Concepts:

• ·      Culture
• ·      Identity
• ·      Gender

Essential Questions Addressed in Lesson One:

• ·      How has and does culture define the artist and his/her role?
• ·      Within this definition, who is excluded?
• ·      What do these exclusions reveal about the culture?
• ·      What is gender?
• ·      What does it mean to be a female artist? 

Rationale: Introduces the gender inequalities that are present in the under representation of women in the history of art. Identifies women throughout history who have been excluded from the cannon and begins the questioning of this practice.

Lesson 2: The Forgotten Female (Kara Lysandra Ross)

Key Concepts:

• ·      Position
• ·      Power
• ·      Artistic Lineage

Essential Questions addressed in Lesson Two:

• ·      Who are these women?
• ·      What is Western art history’s viewpoint?
• ·      How do this viewpoint and the idea of the museum institution as the authority on art address the role of the female artist?
• ·      What does it mean to be marginalized?

Rationale: Identify where women are traditionally placed within the art “community” and explore how the institution of the museum influences and propagates the suppression of women in the arts.

Lesson 3: Vision, Voice and Power (Griselda Pollock)

Key Concepts:

• ·      Power
• ·      Voice
• ·      Adding to the cannon.
• ·      Recognition, inclusion and dispelling the myth.

Essential Questions addressed in Lesson Three:

• ·      Who should be added to the discussion of art?
• ·      Is the art world biased today?
• ·      What challenges do women artists face today?
• ·      How have ideas of gender changed?
• ·      Where do we go from here?

Rationale: Through questioning and research, students will challenge and seek change in both past and present representations of the female artist. 

Exploration #5: Making Visible

“draw together”

A contribution to the project we found along one of our inspections

In a comment on Tara’s Public Pedagogy Blog Post, I mentioned one of our local parks: Betty Virginia Park. This particular park illuminates the diversity found within and without this community. Betty Virginia Park is a picture of the stereotypes, struggles, and differences with which the members of this community still wrestle. Discussing this park with varying members of the community has revealed several different views of the space. One mother with children said, “it is a space for communities to come together” in an area where division can still be found. Another resident mentioned the desire to “clean up the park, make it safe.” The undertones of this response read to discourage certain groups of people from using the park, a sort of “take back the park” mentality. Others are just thrilled for the nice weather and enjoy using the park on a daily basis for picnics, runs, bike rides, and playground play.

Glancing across the park on a sunny day reveals how the park attracts a wide range of people, young and old from a variety of backgrounds. Walkers, runners, students in hammocks, picnickers, loads of children, artists, sunbathers, baseball and soccer players all populate the park.  The park not only represents an area of intersecting lives but also cultures. Weekend barbeques and birthday parties offer insight into family and community structure and celebration. Each of these events offers a glimpse into the lives of those around us.  Closer inspection reveals that while all are welcome in the park, a divide remains. Individuals and/or groups are often playing along side one another without engaging with one another. Repeated afternoons at the park expose this division. Parents congregating around the picnic tables chatting or using their smart phones while their children play. Other parents hovering close, phone in hand, one eye on their child, chatting with other parent who is multitasking the same. Then there is the engaged parent consumed with his child's amusement. However, the scene offers little interaction between parents of opposite races.  

From these observations, the idea of a "draw together" movement was envisioned. By asking people that are already sharing space to participate in creating within that space challenges the current paradigm. The phrase “draw together” was used specifically to call attention to the potential unification of this participatory act. Working together. Creating together. Building upon the work of others -  together. Looking together. Engaging together. In fact, the subject of what we draw together isn’t important at this point (I believe that will come later), but rather the close proximity and coherence that develops from acting together.

In Making Visible, I enlisted the help of my four-year old to help me intersect and interrupt the park users pathways with a campaign to “draw together.” We placed buckets of sidewalk chalk along the pathways (see the blue boxes on the map of BVP) where we noticed the most intersecting. At each stop, we used the space to begin the drawings and left the bucket with a note “Take one: Chalk for Everyone” – “make your mark.” As we moved throughout the park to plant the other buckets, I noticed people walking around the chalk drawings, stopping to read the words and investigate. A few people stopped to contribute their handiwork.

Some of our original invitations to "draw together"

Aerial View of Betty Virginia Park in Shreveport, LA
Red arrows indicate the walking/running paths
Green oval identifies the playground area (most heavily populated area)
Blue boxes are chalk buckets and invitations to participate

Over the course of a (mostly sunny) week, we visited the spots, replenished the buckets and admired the handiwork. A few of the buckets disappeared (we replaced those – by the end of the week one of ten buckets remained). Each visit, we added new thoughts. A quote from Picasso, “Every child is an artist,” beside the bucket left near the play area. Lists of famous artists, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Matisse, Dali, Basquiat, Warhol, O’Keefe, Judy Chicago, and Monet with the question: “Where’s your name?” We would create our own drawings until my little one was ready to move to the play area and then I would just observe how people interacted with the space we left behind. 

Some of the responses to "Where's Your Name?" 

Almost every time someone encountered the “abandoned” materials, the person looked around to see, perhaps, if the owner was near or if someone was watching. Sometimes a runner, walker, dog walker, kid on a skateboard would pause and participate. In the less populated areas, most people worked independently around the space – someone would pass, notice an “artist” at work, make another loop and then take a moment to engage, becoming both spectator and participant.  Children approached the abandoned buckets with much more ease. Many, too small to even read the “chalk for everyone” sign, gladly grabbed a piece of chalk and used it until it was almost gone. If we were close by or still drawing, adults would simply look, smile (who wouldn’t at a four-year old drawing a Pteranodon;) and keep moving. On the contrary, children were eager to participate, often looking to me for “permission” and then to my daughter to play.

 

People contributed to "draw together" in a variety of ways. Some opted to work alone in a more remote area of the park. Some created their "art" beside other's taking care not to cover someone else's work. Some of the most interesting works are those layered and layered on top of their own or someone else's work. (On a side note: the area in which this was most frequently observed was under a pavilion with concrete that incredibly smooth and wonderful to draw on.) The two images below are slices from examples of this layering process. 

Asking people to step out of their routine to engage with us, one another, and the space around them was exciting and enlightening for me (and hopefully for my daughter) as I too was challenged to confront any social anxieties I might have. We had a wonderful time meeting new people, making art, and playing.

One person even offered "thanks" for the materials.  

Exploration #4: Politicizing the Personal Postcard

Exploration #4: Contemporary Art Concepts

Regender: (from wiktionary.org)

1.     To cause (a person) to be seen to have a (new, different) gender identity or role.

2.     To cause (a thing or subject) to be gendered in a new or different way; to be associated with a new gender or with new genders.

Regender: A different kind of translator reinterprets websites by transposing gender specific language (“male” with “female” “she” with “he”) giving viewers an opportunity to explore instances (glaring and subtle) in which men and women are subjected to cultural beliefs about gender. Looking at a website in this way exposes the disparity between the presentation of male and female and reveals a culture’s conscious and subconscious treatment of the two sexes. Understanding this site in terms of contemporary art requires that we think of this sight as net art.

What is net art? According to NetSpecific.net “net art is an elusive and sometimes anarchic art form which uses the Internet as its primary material. Net art works often draw on data from other Internet materials and websites, which helps give them their distinctive dynamics and transience.”

K. P Yee’s software allows the user to appropriate and recontextualize a website to reveal codes of gender and challenge stereotypes through role reversal. Let me interject, while this is an extremely useful tool for unearthing cultural beliefs, where does transgender fit into this? Although our language is not set up (at the present time) to address the placement of transgender (or gender neutral) groups, the exclusion of this group reveals its own set of beliefs.

What is created is “appropriation” because Regender uses content from the entire site to create new “art” - a  “commentary” on gender. The software only changes words that are coded as gender specific (female names are changed to male, her is changed to him, men is changed to women); therefore, creating an entirely new work that seems “out of context” with the original. At first glance, recontextualization seems subtle but present.  The original site is the familiar “image.” The contrasting gender language  - “the text with which [the site] is not usually associated” (Gude 2004,  9) - male instead of female, forces the viewer to read and interpret the content of the site differently from its original intent.

As women’s reproductive rights are a hot topic at the moment, I was curious to see just how and what Regender exposed about these conversations. In my search, I looked at two websites: www.nwlc.org (National Women’s Law Center) and  www.forwomen.org. 

The National Women's Law Center advocates for the rights of women on many levels. Some of the issues they address are Childcare & Early Learning, Education & Title IX, Employment, Health Care & Reproductive Rights, Judges & Court, Poverty & Income Support, Social Security & Retirement, Tax & Budget, and A Women's Agenda.

A regendering of these issues looks something like this... 

Regendered articles found throughout the site include: 

Men at risk of losing affordable health insurance

Can the Supreme Court Take a Paternity Coverage?

2014 State Level Abortion Restrictions:

An Extreme Overreach into Men’s Reproductive Health Care

The Hyde Amendment Creates an Unacceptable Barrier To Men Getting Abortions: We Must Use the Resources To Get Men the Health Care They Need

A Men’s Economic Agenda Must Help Men and Families Succeed

"A Men's Economic Agenda Must Help Men and Families Succeed" was especially revealing of the disparity of power and privilege between men and women (you can click on the title above to link to the article).  However, regender.com does have its limits as the "Threats to Reproductive Health" page was not accessible through the appropriated site. 

Thinking about women's reproductive rights brought Marc Quinn's Venus: Alison Lapper Pregnant to mind. Lapper, born with no arms and short legs, is depicted nude and pregnant. The sculpture challenges viewers to address Lapper’s “(dis)ableness AND her pregnancy. Such an image exposes attitudes about physical normality and beauty, a (dis)abled person’s ability and choice to reproduce, and the female nude as subject all within a very public place (the sculpture was on view in London's Trafalgar Square from 2005 to 2007). Lapper's body causes discomfort and unease for some while the armless Venus de Milo is considered a beautiful masterpiece in the Eurocentric art world. That is as baffling as sixty (plus) year old men making healthcare decisions concerning women's reproductive rights.  The use of power and privilege to control women's rights of reproduction is not a new practice.  In fact, had Lapper had the misfortune of living in Texas in 1849, Dr. Gordan Lincecum could have and probably would have proposed forced sterilization stating that her genes were "undesirable" for reproduction.

Resources:

Gude, O. (2004). Postmodern Principles: In Search of a 21st Century Art Education. Art Education, 57(1), 6-14.

www.wiktionary.org

www.nwlc.org

www.regender.com

www.forwomen.org

Exploration #3: Extending the Invitation

I would like to extend an invitation to....

Dr. Maya Angelou

Civil Rights Activist. Mother. Singer. Dancer. Actress. Composer. First African American Female Director. Writer. Poet. Essayist. Autobiographer. Playwright. Educator.

Some have referred to her as a "Renaissance Woman."  

The image above illustrates the Voice of Maya Angelou. 

For five years of her early life, Maya Angelou was a mute. Believing that her words had taken the life of the man who molested her, she chose silence. This experience gave rise to an understanding of the power of voice - her own and that of others. Recognizing that it "was dangerous for [her] to become silent" because "mutism is like a drug...it is so addictive, you don't have to do anything." (Maya Angelou: Finding My Voice from Visionary Project), Angelou became a spokesperson for both African Americans and women. Through her writing, she gave a voice to the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the hopeless. Her words reverberate across time, space, and culture to break down barriers and uplift those on the other side of repression. Maya Angelou spoke life into the world around her as she reflected on issues of equality, racism, poverty, her struggles as an African American woman and single-mother working to gain a higher education, along with the shifting landscape of American culture during her life. 

Exploration #2: Public Pedagogy of Everyday Objects & Space: Table Talk

California Baby Newborn/Toddler/Children's Products

Having children with incredibly sensitive skin has been a challenge since their birth. Discovering California Baby, "safe and natural" products that would perform without leaving my little one itchy, dry or resembling a tomato, was a great relief to me. With natural products and safe ingredients, I was happy that I would not have to "make" my own shampoos and skin creams for those sweet baby cheeks. So, imagine my surprise to find that a company that advertises "developed by a mother, California Baby has your best interest at heart" has overall ratings of 6.3 or below on www.goodguide.com due to due performance in the areas of "environment and society." Key areas that received the lowest ratings included the company's policies and practices related to water use, environmental reporting, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, and human rights. Each of these were rated 4.0 out 10.0 according to the standards of the site. The overall health of the products from this line were ranked from 8.0 to 10.0. Today, the words natural, organic, whole, sustainable, eco-friendly, pure, essential, botanically based, gluten-free, GMO free, and recycled (not an exhaustive list) are often interpreted as the healthier, better, safer, smarter choice. Please do not misunderstand, I believe that these are good things, and often the better choice for me and my family. However, consumers can be too trusting and dangerously interchange some words for others ("all natural" for "organic"). Consumers, like myself, also are in danger of assuming that just because a company promotes healthy living, more natural choices and in fact offers a healthy alternative does not mean that the company exhibits this same care and caution when making the product. By "exploring the social and political meanings that are communicated through" the verbiage of these products and the products themselves can help us to gain a better understanding of the intended consumer and target audience. 

House as Metaphor

‘home within home’ (installation view)museum of modern and contemporary art, seoul, koreanovember 12, 2013 – may 11, 2014

"I just didn't want to sit down and cry for home. I wanted to more actively deal with issues of loneliness."

Do Ho Suh's ideas about the mobility of "home" struck me...the idea that you can physically recreate your home where ever you go. For years, I have experienced great periods of "homesickness" for the country home I grew up in. Suh's reflection on his childhood home and desire to carry that with him where ever he goes resonated with me and brought many of those feelings to the surface. Having experienced Suh's work in person at the Seattle Art Museum, I felt a familiarity as he talked. Much like Suh, I always wanted to travel, live in different places, "get away" from my roots, my childhood country life experience. The Korean idea of "walking the house" is especially intriguing to me as I wonder how differently I would understand my childhood "home" if I could physically take it with me always. As it is now, I am either extremely disappointed because returning home does not match my memory or exceedingly rewarded by the serenity of the place I still cherish as "home" (even though I have lived in many different places and owned quite a few houses as an adult).

Suh's work confronts the issues of cultural displacement. Coming home for me has been a displacement of sorts. Growing up in Louisiana, moving away for many years and returning has opened my eyes to how different I am from the culture in which I was raised. My belief systems have evolved and no longer mirror (or resemble) my parents or even some of my siblings. This could be part of the feeling of loss I experience when thinking about or revisiting my home. What am I actually home sick for? The time before I realized we were so fundamentally different? A desire for them to see things as I do? Or at least try?

The Perfect Home (2002)
Silk and translucent nylon
Private Collection, New York

Our Family Table 

My first thought for this exercise was my dining room table. Since I was a child, almost all family activity, discussions, and interactions revolved around our dining room table (a solid wood round table). My parents insisted that all meals take place around this table (whether we liked it or not...there were definitely times I envied my friends whose parents allowed them to eat in front of the TV) - on weekends we ate three meals gathered together like King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.

Today, my little family of four participates in the same ritual...all meals around the table.  In fact, many other activities take place at our table...school projects, art and craft activities, games, reading, FaceTime with distant relatives, just to name a few. However, for this exercise I wanted to explore another table that is (almost) equally important in our home at this period in our life: the train table. 

Calling this the "train table" is actually an inaccurate description of its function and purpose. I think that the "learning table" might be a bit more appropriate. This small table sits about a foot off the ground and is the perfect size for my two and four year old to manipulate and navigate. This table represents creativity, exploration, invention, innovation, conversation, discussion, revelation. Sometimes it looks just as you see it. At other times it is cleared completely, covered with brown paper and becomes a canvas. It offers a flat surface for games and puzzles. My girls find many uses for this space. I have even observed it being used for contemplation...

she's not sleeping...just "kickin" - said Bea

As our family congregates around this table, a different kind of conversation unfolds...the girls have invited us into their world of play. We are asked to be creators within their space but also to abide by their rules (reminiscent of "rules" we might have at the dining room table).

Reflecting on the statement: Cultural understandings of time and space determine what we choose to see, and define our understanding of the relationships between things (Keifer-Boyd 1992, 74). One of the purest places in my home (and possibly life at this moment) to witness the physical articulation and exploration of beliefs is in the play of my children. They experiment with language, relationships, space. They contemplate time and their relation to it. They are constantly watching themselves, each other, the objects within their environment to understand how they act, react and interact with one another. I find that even their verbal communication is a working out of their nonverbal actions. (They might be a product of a mom who has labeled and discussed everything since they were born). As I listen to conversation, I hear about my four year olds' day. Unexpected glimpses of pop culture surface (last week she was singing Annie's "It's a Hard Knock Life" - she has never seen the movie or heard the song). Apparently, her friends at school have invited her into their reenacting of the new Annie movie. Beliefs are articulated (several weeks ago she was singing a song she made up: "boys are not the bosses...only girls are bosses...boys are not the bosses...only girls are bosses").  She was reluctant to discuss the ideas that prompted these lyrics. 

In this space, we learn things about them that we might not otherwise. We are participants and eavesdroppers. They articulate many of their beliefs and echo ours through the dialogue of characters and the patterns of construction. Although this space seems to extend its reach to anyone who wants to explore, the table's size actually excludes many. The elderly or physically challenged may find the space impossible to navigate. Sometimes I am asked to be in constant movement around the table, a cumbersome task at times. Additionally, just as children are sometimes excluded from adult conversations and activities...instances arise when we are asked to leave or remain as spectators.  

All in all, this table represents the growing of our family, closer together and as individuals. The space and environment surrounding this table parallels the dining table as a place that fosters learning, love, and communion.   

Resources: 

Keifer-Boyd, K.  (1992). Deep-seated culture: Understanding sitting. Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, 12, 73–99.

http://www.art21.org/texts/do-ho-suh/interview-do-ho-suh-seoul-home-la-home-korea-and-displacement