link: http://www.akronartmuseum.org/exhibitions/details.php?unid=1354
Caryl and Jen have been working on creating a habit of engaging in conversation revolving around art, education, and feminism. Partially to work on this blog, but also to stay actively engaged in the creation and discourse of contemporary art. This lead us to see one of the groundbreaking contemporary shows in Northeast Ohio entitled PatternID at the Akron Art Museum. The show is about identity and intersections. The overlapping of cultures and histories are woven into these works. Curator Ellen Rudolph states “The artists use pattern and dress to take up the 21st century challenge of locating one’s place in society against the backdrop of globalization. Many of the artists in the exhibition have migrated from one culture to another, be it national, ethnic, racial, sexual, socioeconomic, political or religious. Rather than trade one identity for another, the artists in Pattern ID reveal ways in which identity can be cumulative.”
We’ve decided to review this show through a narrative conversation.
Caryl: Fertile. Maybe it’s the place I am in my life, but I am seeing the potential in PatternID as life giving. While identity is singular, within this exhibit is the sense of common ground and shared identity. I cannot help but think of my students when I see great art. I see them responding the artists that are carving out their sense of self within the larger cultural context by questioning, rebeling, and appropriating. My job then, is to bring them this art. Teach them how to engage with it. Give them the opportunity to create artwork that wrestles with these themes.
Ripe. Watching Nick Cave’s film Sandsuits in Motion (2009) I wrote that his movements were happening in this white room or void. I still was applying what I know, stereotypes, to his performance. The costumes and dancing seemed to echo indigenous peoples of Africa and the Americas. The focus of the camera would blur at times. Any identifiable characteristics were covered. No face, hands, or skin showed for much of the film. But there was a sense of identity, although that identity was masked. Even the movement at times seemed like a mask. To conceal. To perform. These ideas echoed in the works of iona rozeal brown, Lalla Essaydi, and Aya Vekawa. The performance of race, gender, and culture. Why do we wear masks? Who are we performing for and why? Do we create these masks or are they given to us?
Lalla Essaydi - Les Femmes Du Maroc, 2008
And Jen and I questioned, is understanding the end of stereotyping? Maybe not the end, but the opening of knowing that we don’t know it all. They we have to seek answers instead of assume them.
The curating of PatternID is so intelligent. Bringing together diverse artists under a universal theme and helping the everyday museum goer find entry points into the work is a transformative practice. As an feminist educator it’s a dream come true. The resource is invaluable in bringing the ideas to my classroom. The organization of the exhibit helps me pull big ideas and themes from the work. And it further legitimizes my curriculum.
Jen: I have been hearing for some time that I had to get to the Akron Art Museum’s PatternID exhibit. The wealth of personal and collective stories, interpretations of gender roles, and portrayals of identity make this a very rich exhibition for any art teacher that seeks ways to bring feminist pedagogy into the classroom. Nick Cave’s video, Soundsuits in Motion, really set the stage for the exhibit, causing me to examine how I utilize a gender lens in my intake of artwork. The lively-hood of the masked character, the motions of the dance, the colors of the soundsuit – all of these things translated to a gender role for me and changed my interpretation of the video, even if the figures were portrayed in fairly ambiguous ways. I think this is something that a feminist must examine: How do our understandings of gender translate into our reactions to the seemingly ambiguous? Can we truly accept something as ungendered? I find that I sometimes struggle with this as a student, an artist, a teacher, a feminist, and a person. What if I gave myself (and students) the mission of assigning a gender to ambiguous, abstract forms? Does it change my understanding of that form’s being and function? Now reverse it – how does everything change, it at all? Oh, the dialogue!
The fabric and its utilization/representation by the various artists drew me into each piece. Fabric is such a commonality in our everyday life and a vessel through which we divulge our identities to others. A pattern here, a splash of color there – we cover ourselves in such imagery with subliminal intention, maybe even bold intention. Even if we are silent, our fabric is not. It becomes the language of our status, our wealth, our culture, and our power – just as it has for centuries.
Coverings. This theme constantly crossed paths in my inner-dialogues with the pieces. What do we cover behind? What is the purpose of the covering; do we cover for our own comfort or for the comfort of others? Are coverings liberating? Or are they constraining? This exhibit was perfect for these questions because everything was in fabric – the most essential, basic covering we put on everyday. Artists such as James Gobel uses this mundane material to question the very clear roles that society places is in based on the fabric of our lives.
In his 2009 piece I’ll Be Your Friend, I’ll Be Your Lover, I’ll Be Your Everything, Gobel portrays a seemingly gay man in felt and other fabric. He is well-groomed, decked out in a flamboyantly rhinestone-covered cheetah print jacket, has dashing pretty eyes with curled eyelashes, and presents clean, well-managed, tipped fingernails. However, beneath his checkered shirt, you see an Iron Maiden rock-metal shirt reminiscent of drunken, manly, hard-rockin days of male-ness. He is portly and rocks a boxed beard. Gobel presents a fight of gay-ness vs. masculinity through an embodiment/clash of both.
Sometimes I think my coverings present a clash of my ideals. We all wear the teacher outfit – the neatly pressed slacks/skirt with the high button blouse or high neck sweater. And don’t forget the shoes – we love our shoes. Yet, I am not a very neatly pressed woman. I am messy, all-over-the-place, and enigmatic. I love using these identity-clash situations with students. It opens dialogue and thought into why we create such assumptions, and how what we consume perpetuates these assumptions. Plus, it allows my messy, unpressed self to breathe a bit more in my teacher outfit.
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So connecting this to Women’s Caucus, the reason we are here in this viritual space together, we would like to create a performance, a woven fabric, a collaged image of feminist art educators and art educators interested in gender equity. Our conversations, our artwork, and our research speak to who we are, what we care about, and how to enact change. Where is our common ground within our own “ID”s? This question can only be answered with the participation of many voices. What are our entry points for others outside of the membership?
Join the conversation and add your pattern.
Akron Art Museum PatternID Visit
naeawcvoices
