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The Dinner Party – Judy Chicago

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The Dinner Party – Judy Chicago

During my visit to New York City in 2019, I had the honour of visiting museums, galleries and exhibitions that I had fantasised about for years. An unexpected bonus was stumbling across a Lubaina Himid installation on the Highline. My only disappointment was being unable to visit Judy Chicago’s permanent installation The Dinner Party. It is my ambition to view this feminist collaboration and I fear that I may never get the chance to do so. I have, however, found some solace in researching this fascinating composition.

There is so much to admire in this piece of work. It features 39 place settings on a triangular table. Each setting represents a powerful woman from history (Judychicago.com, 2019). The names stretch back beyond the Roman Empire and include fabulous mythical Goddesses. Ishtar, Goddess of love and war has a place setting alongside Kali, Goddess of death (Klein, n.d.). More recent place settings are dedicated physicians, suffragettes, composers, writers and artists. I was particularly excited to see the names of Virginia Woolf and Susan B Anthony. There are a further 999 gold inscribed names within the porcelain floor tiles (Klein, n.d.). They represent ambitious women who were largely unacknowledged for their achievements (Klein, n.d.).

Notwithstanding the intriguing artistic composition, I would love to be a guest at that dinner party,  encountering these women and discussing their lives. I imagine that there would be magnificent conversation woven into heated arguments, humour, laughter and political debate.  I wonder who would be friends at the end of the night?

The feminist installation was made to challenge the continuing underrepresentation of women artists (Springer, Jones and Chicago, 1999). I am fascinated by the strong reactions that it has provoked among critics and laypeople. Perhaps one of the most contentious aspects of the table settings is the plates. Their purpose is to represent the uprising of women throughout history and their presentation becomes increasingly more three-dimensional as they progress through time (Springer, Jones and Chicago, 1999). At a glance, the plates feature delicate floral and butterfly shapes, but further scrutiny reveals vulvas. The three-dimensional ones are beautifully crafted and intricate. They have been the subject of much debate, outrage and humour(Springer, Jones and Chicago, 1999).

Feminist critics have deliberated that Woolf and O’Keefe in particular, would most likely be offended by the vulvas. Both were keen to disassociate themselves from public speculation about sexual meanings and identity in their work. Chicago attempted to donate The Dinner Party to the University of Columbia, but the vulvas led to it being rejected because her work depicted “3D ceramic pornography” (Klein, n.d.). It is galling that female genitalia provokes such revulsion and it certainly reinforces the magnitude of feminist art projects.

The Dinner Party comprises many elements that I find captivating: its pivotal role in feminist art history; the Heritage Panels where I could pour over the historical achievements of women; the hidden meanings; the names from history. However, what I would most like to see, is the meticulous detail of the beautiful artwork which is featured. The embroidery embellishes the place settings and looks complex and intricate. I would like to admire the textures, colours, shapes and lines of the sophisticated stitching and gain inspiration for my hobby. I want to read the Goldwork place names and inspect the embroidered motifs for each woman being honoured. I would love to compare and contrast the features of each setting and unpick the identities and achievements symbolised in thread, ceramics and paint.

My scrutiny of The Dinner Party has merely fuelled my desire to see it. It continues to be an ambition of mine and I remain hopeful that one day I can potter for hours, admiring the embroidery and ceramics, and speculating about the magnificent women showcased.

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Karoline Vitto

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Karoline Vitto

In the last ten years, I have developed a passion and love for textiles and fashion.  It stretches back to the 1920s with my adoration of flapper dresses and their exquisite beadwork and embroidery.  I am a frequent visitor to London Fashion Week and was ecstatic when in 2018, my visit coincided with Christian Dior at the V&A. However, as a feminist, I am deeply conflicted by the misery which the fashion industry imposes on women.

The industry is fraught with issues. It has consistently failed to protect both the women who model their designs and the market of women who buy them. For decades, women of all ages and young models have been forced onto diets to maintain unachievable and unhealthy weights (de Freitas, Jordan and Hughes, 2018). The misery that this brings on generations of women, is compounded by airbrushed magazine covers and manipulation of filtered social media profiles that completely lack any diversity or normality.  Standards of comparison are acute and unrealistic. The toxic culture of photoshop is further fuelling body dysmorphia, self-hatred, eating disorders and self-harm (de Freitas, Jordan and Hughes, 2018). Women are growing up to believe that they must be a specific shape or size to achieve true happiness and self-worth. The body positivity movement is gaining momentum, but sadly not fast enough to address these issues today (de Freitas, Jordan and Hughes, 2018).

Additionally, much of our clothing continues to be produced in unregulated factories where trafficking and exploitation are rife, particularly for women. This corruption is not confined to factory workshops. Educated and talented women looking to work in fashion, are forced to work as unpaid interns in an attempt to gain a foothold in the industry. They can be used for long periods with the ongoing lure of a paid role, which rarely materialises (Vaidyanathan, 2020).

My search for an ethical contemporary fashion designer, who promotes body positivity in women, led me to Karoline Vitto. Her clothes are stunning and a joy to look at.

Vitto’s designs celebrate the areas of women’s bodies that they have been conditioned to be ashamed of and spent decades trying to hide (AnOther, 2021). Her work has partly been inspired by a former choice that she made to adopt a waist clincher to emulate the wasp-like waists coveted in her native Brazil (AnOther, 2021). The misery that this inflicted, led her to challenge the use of shapewear which typically shames and disguises what is natural. She has since defied its everyday use and instead utilises shapewear fabrics to emphasise and expose back fat, breast curves and thighs.  Her mission is for women to see their bodies as works of art and banish the shame and envy which they feel in front of the mirror every day (Debutify, n.d.).

Her clothing collection is a work of art.  Each piece is dedicated to exploring body image and challenging beauty stereotypes (Royal College of Art, n.d.). Her dresses feature delicate metalwork, woven fabrics and elastic straps which accentuate breast, stomach and back bulges. They emphasise the beauty of flaws and curves and celebrate the body parts that women have spent decades trying to banish. Her clothes feature cut-outs that expose skin contours and rolls which have been made part of the garment’s visual pattern. The elegant metalwork sits like jewellery and delicately flatters the exposed bulging flesh (Royal College of Art, n.d.).

Vitto recognises that although body positivity is a very individual process, contemporary fashion designers need to foster it in their garments and marketing. She believes that designers must take more accountability for self-image (Royal College of Art, n.d.). Thankfully, the body positivity movement is continuing to gain momentum on the catwalks and within more mainstream brands such as Monki and Lucy and Yak. And whilst I’m still conflicted about the fashion industry, I feel a sense of optimism and excitement that contemporary designers are emerging whose creations fill me with the same delight as Christian Dior and Mary Quant, but which all women can enjoy without comparison or shame.

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Lubaina Himid

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Lubaina Himid

Lubaina Himid is a contemporary political painter who has committed the last four decades to expose the marginalisation of Black people through her work (Himid, 2017). She began her career in theatre design and was determined to make political street theatre. Himid was, however, driven away by the dominance of white, privileged men who were fixated with ballet and opera. Thus, in the 1980s, she moved into painting,  just as the Black art movement was emerging (Himid, 2017).

She has created theatrical and witty textiles, paintings and sculptures which feature powerful historical narratives about the impact of colonialism. She is passionate about challenging and exposing why Black and Asian women are so underrepresented in the arts and media (Denise, 2020).

Himid displayed much of her work through exhibitions that she organised. She did this so that she could showcase and promote the work of her contemporaries with the same political agenda, alongside her work. Into the Open toured the UK in 1984 and became one of the first exhibitions to celebrate the work of Black artists in Britain (Denise, 2020).

Many of her exhibitions and installations are theatrical and feature two-dimensional cut-out characters and props. They tell stories of the slave trade and the African diaspora. In Naming the Money 2014, Himid presented 100 life-size cut-outs which represented Black servants and labourers (Denise, 2020). She gave each of them a name and story to counteract their loss of identity which stemmed from being viewed as a  cohort of slaves. The installation featured a soundtrack of voices and stories. (Denise, 2020)

I had the privilege of viewing her Five Conversations exhibition on the New York Highline in 2019. The exhibition featured five wooden doors which had been reclaimed from Georgian townhouses. On them, she had painted brightly coloured silhouettes of life-size portraits (The High Line, 2019). It gave a sense of neighbourly community and invited debate about the relationships and lives of those depicted. It made me envisage women supporting and nurturing each other. When I went to walk along the Highline that morning, I had no idea that Himid’s work was being exhibited. It was such a beautiful, sunny day and to stumble across her colourful, theatrical installation was unforgettable.

Like me, Himid is an avid Guardian reader. She set out to expose their unintentional racism with humour and grace. The Guardian has been invertedly placing negative news texts next to photographs and articles about Black people (Armitstead, 2018). Examples include a story about progressive Ugandan midwives, positioned next to an article on knife crime. Over the years she has cut out the images of every Black person that she could find in the paper and set to work “restoring the dignity” of them. This involved her painting over them, annotating or emphasising patterns. She used this narrative in her exhibition Negative Positives, where she showcased how Black people were represented in The Guardian in 2007. This was the year in which the 200th anniversary of the Act of Parliament which abolished Slavery was commemorated (Armitstead, 2018).

Himid is a fantastic, trailblazing artist who I believe has been undervalued for most of her career. Thankfully, a significant turning point came when she was awarded the Turner Prize in 2017. She was the first Black woman and oldest artist to receive this accolade. She planned to spend the winnings on encouraging other underrepresented Black artists, thus continuing her philanthropic and passionate journey to promote Black lives (Himid, 2017). Her work is beginning to make a difference. The last ten years has finally witnessed an increase in portraits of Black people in contemporary art and the growing recognition of Black artists such as Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and  Njideka Akunyili Crosby.

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Eve Provost Chartrand

I watched Eve Provost Chartrand’s presentation about her work using ongoing case studies to challenge misconceptions regarding woman’s ageing bodies. I realised that I had never encountered art like this. Chartrand chose to expose a subject that gains little recognition in today’s world of art and media. She has showcased how women, who reach middle age and beyond are considered invisible within society. One could find some of Chartrand’s work to be contradicting. She promotes woman’s ageing bodies by emulating decaying substances such as fungi and skin to highlight how woman’s bodies are represented in the media. Yet she juxtaposes this with objects such as flowers which act as a metaphor for the beautiful transformation that women go through as they age (Transart Institute for Creative Research, n.d.).

Other elements of her work also highlight the contrast between life and death. The use of organic matter and a live participant in her work of “Phagein” attempts to destigmatise the process of ageing, illness and impending death among women (mysite-1, n.d.).

The most fascinating piece of her work that I viewed was the “Exposed Yet Unseen.” In this, Chartrand uses hospital screens to reveal her concept (mysite-1, n.d.). One may initially find this an interesting way to exhibit work, yet with further scrutiny, I found this technique of Chartrand’s to be quintessential to the message being portrayed. Chartrand is attempting to showcase the dichotomy witnessed by the elderly population when they seek medical attention for age-related afflictions (mysite-1, n.d.). Despite being examined by medical personnel, the elderly are still considered inferior and invisible. Their aged, diseased bodies beyond repair. Their identity is gone. This has particularly resonated throughout the Covid pandemic. The elderly population denied beds and ventilation in favour of younger, healthier bodies.  The idea that their lives are already spent. Chartrand’s work continues to challenge and dispute this discrimination.

I found how Chartrand uses her work to transform women from invisible to visible inspiring. Her art seeks to challenge the notion that ageing bodies are characterised by disease, decomposition and finally death.  It made me reflect deeply on how I perceive older women, particularly those of my mother’s age (over 50).

At the Tate gallery last year, I viewed an exhibition named “How to be Invisible”. The exhibition took the observer through several comedic steps on how to become invisible. One of the steps included a feature about being a woman over 40. At the time I found it darkly amusing. It was certainly a valid theme and one which I had rarely considered. As a younger member of society, I have never fully appreciated the extent to which women over 40 are marginalised. It also made me reflect on the tortuous processes which some of these women go through to remain accepted by society – diet, Botox, surgery…. I also realised that this was one of the few art installations that I had seen which featured woman over 40. However, more alarmingly, they were portrayed as a joke.

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Sheena Liam

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Sheena Liam

Sheena Liam’s artwork encompasses two of my childhood fascinations; embroidery and hair. From an early age, Embroidery has been a much-loved hobby of mine and as such, I wanted to explore how this traditional craft had been employed in contemporary art. Since I also spent many happy hours during my teens practising complex, intricate braids on myself and my friends, Liam’s portrayal of women and their hair through novel embroidery techniques, quickly captured my attention. To see two of my passions intertwined in such a distinctive fashion was compelling and I was intrigued to find out more about Liam’s art and the inspiration behind it.

Liam first came to public attention when she won the second season of the reality TV show “Asia’s next top model” in 2014 (Isaac and Goh, 2020). Although she continues to enjoy a successful modelling career, Liam also finds the time to create unique artworks that can be found on her “Times New Romance” website and Instagram account. At first, her embroidered images may seem quite simplistic and naïve. However, upon closer examination, you can begin to admire the novel use of the thread to create cascading hair that comes out of the embroidery hoop. In traditional embroidery, the thread is tied off, making this three-dimensional sculptural effect highly original and unlike any standard techniques (Lina, 2019).

Born in Malaysia and with no formal embroidery training, it was Liam’s mother that originally taught her traditional stitching skills (Bentley, 2020). Liam states that, at first, she found embroidery somewhat dull and restrictive, preferring to sketch people, having a love of form, faces and hands (Lina, 2019). In later years, with time between modelling jobs and needing a creative outlet, she started illustrating and drawing self-portraits, hoping to produce a zine (Lina, 2019). Eventually, she returned to her childhood craft and started to embroider these sketches using traditional methods. Ultimately, finding this too limiting, she started to explore alternative techniques and soon added the 3D hair element into her work (Isaac and Goh, 2020). Although Liam never made a conscious decision to focus on hair, she found that the sculptural aspect of those pieces, captured people’s imagination and so continued to create them (Bentley, 2020).

Most of Liam’s embroideries are simple, single stitch monochrome compositions, using dark green thread with the sculptural aspect of the hair adding a sense of movement, realism and uniqueness to each piece. Liam experimented with many different styles for her own hair as she grew older and more independent (Andrews, 2019). This exploration is reflected in her artwork, with a wide variety of hairstyles weaved into the compositions, from free-flowing locks to braids, fringes, and buns. Although the hair component of the composition is often determined on the fly, the rest of the work is carefully composed and taken from photographs (Andrews, 2019). Liam likes to incorporate awkward poses, using body language to express mood and emotion, recognising the parallels to her modelling work (Lina, 2019). Explaining that she finds it difficult to direct other models, nearly all of her pieces depict a self-posed silhouette. One could wonder if this constant depiction of herself reflects a need for complete, overarching control in every aspect of her work contrasted against suggestions of vulnerability and the imagery of threads unravelling and coming undone.

Interestingly, Liam does not sell her pre-existing pieces, regarding them as her own and representing a huge part of herself (Andrews, 2019). Instead, she prefers to create new commissions for collectors that love the work and have a story that resonates. This is what I love about her art, it is deeply personal with simplicity and originality that matches my own interests and tastes. She inspires me to just start, to create something, anything for the sheer love of the process and the unknown outcome!

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Feminism in Contemporary Art. Are 21st Century Woman Artists Still Marginalised Because of Their Gender?

The lecture on Eileen Agar led me to contemplate her struggle to gain recognition in a period where the art world was dominated by men. It was conspicuous that she, like many other female artists, was disregarded not only because of her gender but because her ideologies did not suit society’s expectations of a woman. For example, she valued sexual freedom and the choice not to bear children. Agar being overlooked to favour her male counterparts was just one of the many examples of a woman being denied the credit that they merited.

I witnessed parallels between Agar and another woman artist I who researched - Hilma Klint. Klint was the first artist to paint what is now considered to be abstract art. Yet she was denied that status. Instead, it was awarded to Kandinsky, despite Klint painting her first piece 5 years before him (Colossal, 2020) .  The theme of women being overlooked in favour of men is evidenced throughout history. Woman having to fight for the recognition that they have earned.

In the 1971 essay Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? the consensus was that there have been, but society maintained obstacles that prevented these women from becoming successful. However is this attitude still evident towards a 21st-century woman? It is ignominious to note, that yes there is still a significant disparity between female and male artists (Brown, 2019). Data from the last decade suggests that woman still only make up a small proportion of permanent art collections in  US and European galleries (Brown, 2019).

Furthermore, when artworks are auctioned, woman’s art is consistently sold for less than men’s.  And yet one of the most perturbing factors is that only two female artists have made it into the top 100 auction sales for paintings (Brown, 2019). Yet in 25 of these paintings, the main subject matter is a woman. It is incontestable that even in modern society, a woman is still seen as an object or muse and is not recognised for her artistic talent and ambition. Additional research also found that woman are more likely to work in creative fields such as art and music (Coon, 2019).

But why is it that woman are still marginalised in a field that they should dominate? Or do other factors play into the disparities between men and woman in the art market? It is said that woman tend to produce art with different characteristics and components, to that produced by men (Elderton, 2017). This includes materials, size and subject matter. This does not necessarily stem from biological stereotypes but different life experiences. It is evident that even in today’s society, woman’s life experiences differ greatly from men's (Coon, 2019).

Whether that being more likely to be a victim of a violent crime or the societal norm of woman sacrificing their careers to raise children, these experiences can be influences in artistic style (Elderton, 2017). Besides, art materials that are used by each gender is a significant factor in this. Woman tend to create more textiles-based art as evidenced throughout history. This style of art has been produced largely by woman (Brown, 2019). This is also still prevalent in many cultures and customs today.  

In contrast, men’s most used medium is paint. They have typically used it for centuries. When one is asked to name a famous painter, men’s names usually spring to mind (Brown, 2019). Paintings are some of the most sold pieces of artwork at auctions (Boddy-Evans, 2019). Thus, is it misogyny or is it just preference? It is difficult to answer as men tend to dominate much of the influential roles such as critics and curators (Coon, 2019). Therefore, is it down to men having the preference of men’s work as they share the same taste? But then, why are there not more female art critics and curators? It feels like an endless cycle that will be hard to break.  I do believe, however, that it should be a full priority to break down these barriers for female artists, critics and buyers. One can only hope shortly that there will be a push for more woman to fulfil these roles, and woman will no longer be exposed to indifference for their work.

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Introduction

I have visited many exhibitions that explore contemporary art. From Martin Creed at The Tate St Ives to Michael Craig-Martin at Chatsworth House. Initially, I failed to fully understand what contemporary art was, or how it related to art from a historical perspective. Yet as I investigated and researched, I realised that contemporary art largely replicates historical art. I deemed historical art to be an expression of stories, politics, love and self-discovery. I viewed it as a reflection of society, expressed through paint, textiles and ceramics. This narrative certainly prevails today, although I feel that art has progressed from using paint and sculpture as a primary source of tools, to performance art and installations. I have learned that contemporary art does lend itself to being a more interactive and dynamic experience, and not just a painting to admire or analyse.

However, what inspires me about contemporary art, is that the political voice feels stronger than ever. As a feminist, I would like to explore how contemporary female artists empower women through their work.