A space to discover what the Source Arts have to offer and teach. As a Source Artist I will post and explore the conceptual and development process of the Cultural Fusion art series and the socially purposeful art movement. My primary interest is in advancing art based research to illuminate new opportunities and valuable insights.
The recent state supported season of commemorations for the American civil war have been unexpectedly soul stirring. It forces me to take notice of the uncomfortable space that Acceptance calls on one to occupy.
Artist: Yvette Dubel, 'Project:Forgive postcard3', paper collage and digital media. Photo: Y. Dubel.Courtesy: SoulFood Studio.Postcard 3 from Project:Forgive - a global call for attention to forgiveness as a path forward. Open invitation to the public to contribute and expand the project.
In response to an editorial piece by the director of the Fairfield County Museum, who has inspired other works in this series going back to "what is peace?" genesis of http://ProjectForgive.org , that was published on The State newspaper website - in reply, I posted the following comment:
Can we agree that a terrorist is a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells? In the context of the civil war - that seems to fit the confederates.
The bottom line is that many are calling for us to celebrate Domestic Terrorism. Was Lincoln's response that different from Bush's response to contemporary terrorism? It seems that the national policy has been pretty consistent in dealing with that kind of activity, so I repeat the question being asked by many who have not posted here - "what is there to celebrate?" A terrorist is a terrorist. Whether born here or elsewhere, actions define a life and that is the legacy they leave for their descendants...as well as, in many cases, wealth built on the backs of slaves.
I also know Pelham and wonder how as a fellow student of history the obvious can be so grievously overlooked? But that also helps to explain a great deal about why things are as they are - and would ask you to consider the role of the history museum in being a place to continue dialogues about histories lessons versus enshrining the south's past with its corresponding prevalent mindsets. For example, The Oral History Project and similar exhibitions at the museum in Fairfield was an encouraging step in the right direction of increasing inclusion and the diversity of perspectives on history - very good for opening dialogues that could move the community forward. Instead, such projects have been shut down and gotten menial support at best - while fund-raising to preserve more destructive elements of our historical past have gotten full attention and considerably more funding support.
The rationale for what the confederates did - and those who think it is something worthy of celebration is every bit as logical as our modern day terrorist and their supporters.
I wonder if there will be a call for non-accusatory remembrances of September 11th in a couple hundred years? Will there be a call for the descents of those victims to be understanding of the rationalization for the terrorists crimes? How does that attack that lasted a single day compare with this one that lasted four years?
Perhaps a more constructive way of acknowledging this part of history would be to focus on Forgiveness - where to forgive is to give up hope of a better past. If anyone is interested in continuing THIS dialogue I invite you to contact me and join me in ProjectForgive.org I am in the process of developing art and events focused on bringing people together to explore the reality and context of Forgiveness - it is the healing salve we need to strengthen our communities and families. Perhaps this time of recognition for the civil war could be a chance to explore its legacy and maybe - just maybe we can increase the peace.
Someone else mentioned a candle light vigil, which is a good place to start because each person can remember who they choose and honor lives lost - I'd be up for that...
Today, as is every day really, an opportunity to appreciate life and to keep squabbles in perspective ( http://ProjectForgive.org ) .
As much as some things stir my interest in protest art, there is also the interest in its alternative. Artist4theHomeless.org started as a student blog and has grown into an inspiring vision for a non-profit community organization. It embodies the new community organization that has learned to use global reach (social media, information and communication technology) to empower knowledge sharing and social marketing (increase awareness of perspectives from the homeless community) using institutional styled models.
In contrast to the conceptual resistance is organic beauty - natural wonder...and the wonder that is creative inspiration.
Since I missed posting this on the Winter Solstice let's imagine this is posted simultaneously now and Dec. 21, 2010. This is actually the Holiday - Winter Solstice post since I feel a need to look for all that there is good to appreciate as part of a personal cycle.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the gloomy winter solstice has been responsible for many symbols, ancient myths and religious beliefs over millennia.
In ancient Rome, the winter solstice was celebrated at the feast of Saturnalia, while in pre-christian Britain, the end of December centered around the pagan Yule log in a fiery display to melt the heart of a cold and dreary winter.
Today, a similar response to winter doldrums is the celebration of Christmas by many cultures around the world complete with twinkling lights, holiday feasts & lively festivals.
This Christmas season has me wondering about the disconnect between expressed ideals and the created reality. Even as I observe this in myself I see how it frames the questions of interest...and the work it inspires in this series. [converging research interests - Cultural Fusion Art as Philosophy:evolution of oral traditions, art based research: cultural vocabulary, A/r/tographic community change research model, Prallaxic Praxis:Touchstones Learning, Public Art a Public Service in development of open source solutions]
Living History and Pubic Protest Art
My Aunt and Uncle were among those who showed up to protest the gala event attended by director to whom my questions about the Fairfield County Museum were addressed in my comment post at the end of this blog entry. Reports I heard said the protest attendance was a bit higher at around 250 no need to split hairs over that. Protesters using and gala attendees alike were using theatrical cultural references to demonstrate political revelation in public performance.
Picture below includes director of Fairfield County Museum mentioned in conclusion of this post.
"Inside the hall, 200-odd guests, all white and some in period costume, gathered on Tuesday to see a re-enactment of the signing of the secession document. When it was over, they instinctively joined the cast in singing the anthem of the South, Dixie, before dinner and dancing.
Outside, a racially mixed crowd of about 100 held electric candles aloft at dusk to begin a protest march through downtown Charleston, singing the songs of Selma and Montgomery, including We Shall Overcome. Each camp thus indulged in their forms of theatre before taking to their beds."
..."The South lost the war but they really won it, because they continue to say the war was not about slavery, which is not true of course," argued Blain Roberts, an assistant professor of history at California State University, who attended the Secession Gala to conduct research for a book. "They won the memory of the war, at least."
But the United States is only at the beginning of a four-year stretch of events to commemorate the Civil War, which will peak with the anniversary in November 2013 of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address."
Identifying sources in Cultural Vocabulary
Of the articles I found about the specific even that provide the emotional energy culmination for this post - It would be this one from a New Zealand news site that seems to best express the heart of the matter while conveying specifics of conflict and finally, why it is relevant today.
"I am a proud American and I wouldn't want our country to go through that again," Bill Norris, 60, a maker of banking machinery and gala guest, said. Yet, he wonders, what if the Confederacy had won?
"A part of me does regret it didn't happen," he said. "I believe at some point in dividing the country. We would be better able to govern ourselves in smaller groups. Why should New Yorkers be able to influence government in South Carolina?"
Defining Multiple Contexts
While I do not argue the need for the American Civil War to be acknowledged as part of our national history, I do find some predominate interpretations to be problematic. I find it hard to ignore the obvious question when people want to celebrate the confederacy. What would it mean for the nation today IF the Federal government had not preserved the union? Is it possible to make it a side issue a core principle and reality being denied by the confederacy was the freedom of my ancestors - the right to belong to themselves. As a matter of function of the humanities to serve the public, the history museum as a resource for the commons, must be acknowledged as an institutional authority where programmatic successes are concerned.
Since a predominate intention of this work is to use these ideas and feelings to advance the art work as inquiry and discovery I continue to use this blog to talk to you about its progress.
The piece shown to the left is a mixed media painting "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."
"The dancing was interrupted only once when a plastic oak tree draped with fake Spanish moss toppled over after being sideswiped by a damsel who had briefly forgotten how impractical those old-fashioned skirts were.
Givens found all the questions about slavery pesky. "We are not celebrating that and this is not malicious," he said. "It's about honouring our forefathers for their tenacity. It's about the bravery and courage of our ancestors.
"Can you not be selective about what you are nostalgic about?"
On hand to galvanise the protesters was a local clergyman, the Rev Nelson Rivers. "If Japanese Americans chose to celebrate Pearl Harbour this way it would be outrageous and would not be allowed to occur and that is what is happening here tonight," he said into a megaphone.
Tangee Rice, 57, an African American woman, drove 190km to the march and was wearing the same hat her grandfather had worn marching with Martin Luther King. "The Confederacy is not something to celebrate," she said. "It's just not right." About those re-enacting the start of the Civil War, she said: "They still haven't grown out of it, and it's really sad."
Understanding the contexts of questions and conclusions has pushed me to hold ProjectForgive.org in view. I want to side step the issue of blame without giving up the opportunity to present questions about how what is relates to what has been.
I was not happy when Webb Introduced Bill to Establish Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission but at the same time that I contemplate the political revelations, I ponder the apple as a persistent image with cultural significance. This piece marks precisely, an element in the cultural vocabulary that my work has been exploring with inclusion of feminist art inquiry.
Most who attended the recent ball as part of these "festivities" reenacting the state's secession ball in Charleston, S.C. are clearly marking a different set of touchstones in association with the Civil War and its southern legacy from those conjured by "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree".
Feminist art undertones
Issues of race and gender have commanded attention as part of articulating identity and deciphering national identity in a global tribe. Images that came to me when working on Surviving the South piece are reemerging in another work in process. I am preparing to cut or rip this one, still untitled, into pieces that will be applied to a found object with a sense of history - looking back, but redefined in this new context.
In response to an editorial piece by the director of the Fairfield County Museum, who has inspired other works in this series going back to "what is peace?" genesis of ProjecForgive.org , that was published in The State newspaper website I posted the following comment:
Can we agree that a terrorist is a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells? In the context of the civil war - that seems to fit the confederates.
The bottom line is that many are calling for us to celebrate Domestic Terrorism. Was Lincoln's response that different from Bush's response to contemporary terrorism? It seems that the national policy has been pretty consistent in dealing with that kind of activity, so I repeat the question being asked by many who have not posted here - "what is there to celebrate?" A terrorist is a terrorist. Whether born here or elsewhere, actions define a life and that is the legacy they leave for their descendants...as well as, in many cases, wealth built on the backs of slaves.
I also know Pelham and wonder how as a fellow student of history the obvious can be so grievously overlooked? But that also helps to explain a great deal about why things are as they are - and would ask you to consider the role of the history museum in being a place to continue dialogues about histories lessons versus enshrining the south's past with its corresponding prevalent mindsets. For example, The Oral History Project and similar exhibitions at the museum in Fairfield was an encouraging step in the right direction of increasing inclusion and the diversity of perspectives on history - very good for opening dialogues that could move the community forward. Instead, such projects have been shut down and gotten menial support at best - while fund-raising to preserve more destructive elements of our historical past have gotten full attention and considerably more funding support.
The rationale for what the confederates did - and those who think it is something worthy of celebration is every bit as logical as our modern day terrorist and their supporters.
I wonder if there will be a call for non-accusatory remembrances of September 11th in a couple hundred years? Will there be a call for the descents of those victims to be understanding of the rationalization for the terrorists crimes? How does that attack that lasted a single day compare with this one that lasted four years?
Perhaps a more constructive way of acknowledging this part of history would be to focus on Forgiveness - where to forgive is to give up hope of a better past. If anyone is interested in continuing THIS dialogue I invite you to contact me and join me in ProjectForgive.org I am in the process of developing art and events focused on bringing people together to explore the reality and context of Forgiveness - it is the healing salve we need to strengthen our communities and families. Perhaps this time of recognition for the civil war could be a chance to explore its legacy and maybe - just maybe we can increase the peace.
Someone else mentioned a candle light vigil, which is a good place to start because each person can remember who they choose and honor lives lost - I'd be up for that...
I was all excited about posting this update, but then I realized the flash drive with the photo I wanted use is MIA. OMG!!! I am just hoping and praying that one of the dogs doesn't find it before I do.
I didn't plan to turn this blog into my confession but....
While I am committed to advancing peace with my work, especially via Cultural Fusion, I see as part of that process that I have face my own contradictions. When my father died I was was charged with making the calls to his friends. One fellow, he said they were best friends - stands out in my memory because I had to bite my tongue. I still wonder exactly why he said what he said to me just before I ended the call.
"You know your Daddy and I agreed about a lot of things. One of them was that each race should stick to their own. Whites should marry whites and blacks marry blacks."
I didn't ask him why he was telling me this, but I wondered if my Dad had talked to him about me and my husband. Had my father told him how he felt about not being invited to our wedding?
Again I am reminded of how I was inspired to do the TimeLine...the seed of inspiration was found in my heart reaction to the fact that it took twenty-one years for our surviving parents to meet. And although this was not a matter of distance or anything that might make sense, within certain circles of the family, people like to pretend this means nothing and it just happened that way. Only when I started working on this piece did I finally get honest with myself about how I really felt about it all. At the end of the day I believe it is all connected and this will help me become a better person and a better artist.
Evolution in Feminist Art
Working on my feminist art essay over the weekend I realized why the TimeLine installation has struck deep resonating chord that harkens back to the start of Cultural Fusion. That is because it points again to the project and question "what is peace?" that officially got Cultural Fusion Art as Philosophy underway.
In working on the essay I was reminded of how the expected dialogue about the divides is like a dog chasing its tail. A great deal of energy is conserved for better use by realizing the source of the tail in motion which is being chased.
My friend and co-founder in Cultural Fusion reminded me of something quite significant about resistance. That resistance is the fuel for change. For example, by resisting the status quo of the day the Civil Rights Movement was able to encourage change within the system it was resisting.
I see the same issue arising in my contemplation about feminism and feminist art in contrast to black feminist and humanitarianism. While realizing that the feminist movements most noticeable contribution to the south has been legal and policy changes on domestic violence and violence against women, it was the civil rights, diversity and affirmative action policies that had/have the most significant impact on the lives of women of color.
I believe that is because of these underlying realities that resulted in most feminist art's failure to speak to audiences of marginalized people not systemically embraced by mainstream feminism. In addition, the dominate culture of the south has not been conducive to the messages espoused in the most accessible feminist art. One reason is that it contradicts many of the patriarchal assumptions that prevail in the bible-belt.
The breakthrough afforded by the TimeLine project has been that my understanding of proximity of ideas in a given space has taken on an unexpected depth. In this piece I am exploring, among other things, how I can personally co-exist with people I support and those I not only disagree with but actively resist.
While on my trip in S.C. a couple of weeks ago I was confronted again with exchanging pleasantries with people I know are active supporters of the old confederacy and carrying its legacy forward. To my mind these people are terrorists and terrorist supporters but that thinking does not help me in my mission of peace building.
With "what is peace?" I began defining the foundation of Cultural Fusion as an art series. Rather than labeling as right or wrong - through TimeLine I am endeavoring to engage increasing numbers of people in contributing to my understanding of the connection between personal and public history. It is my hope that the piece and the interactivity that takes shape will help more of us to understand how the personal creates the public and how the way one life is lived impacts others. History cast a shadow on the present and creates the foundation for the future. If we don't make sense of our history then we carry that confusion, anger, hatred, and denial into the future. Peace through Art is definitely a possibility for the individual but how do we expand that to include the world?
That is part of the history, the history of love, peace and progress - to be included in the TimeLine art piece....noting that it does not exist in isolation.
I will be inviting a few of my friends to join the TimeLine Group to begin contributing events in the next week or so, if you would like to be invited as well please let me know.
Pausing from painting and making notes of events to be added to the TimeLine....
This morning I watched a deer through the window as I washed the dishes. The scene from one perspective appeared peaceful and quiet, but for the deer I suspect it was a different experience. It seemed to eat nervously...looking up at every sound or movement, ready to dash off into the woods at the slightest hint of a threat. He presented a contrast to my peaceful and thoughtful creative hiatus.
Thinking about recent events and epiphanies my recollection of the visit with Kitty, featured in this picture, outside a reconstruction of a slave cabin - she is dressed in historical attire for the historical re-inactment.
I have been reflecting on how my perception and understanding of my cultural as well as intellectual inheritance has evolved - shifted and expanded.
Turning this issue of black feminism around in my mind as if it were an object being examined in hand - increasingly it is the humanitarian nature...the inclusiveness of it that seems to distinguish it from the more established feminist construction. At the same time my deconstruction of race persist in calling for my attention - when I peel back the layers of the socio-political construct I find diverse cultures anchored in a spiritually (rather than religious) imbued intellectual tradition. Mainstream feminism, like the predominate culture from which it emerges, our contributions like those of others marked as minorities, have been too often devalued.
I know their value.
Recently while discussing this with my Auntie she said something that had left behind an echo that persist - “While white women were out protesting and demanding the right to work, black women were working in their homes taking care of their children and cleaning their houses”
I thought this was a profound, if obvious, observation. Rather than pushing for the right to work - black women were/are asserting their right to freely select their occupations. In many cases, this has included being home to raise their own children.
After a long history of sexual exploitation, the journey to reclaim one’s self esteem and right to claim self as SELF is a paramount aspect of black feminism. Instead of focusing merely on women’s issues, black feminism (as I have internalized it) broadly wraps its arms around all who have been and are being oppressed. These personal experiences shape and give meaning to public histories.
Following a visit to the Living History Park in North Augusta, S.C. and a documentary about the progress and reactions to land redistribution in South Africa. First the living history park - we again visited with Kitty, who is in her seventies, volunteers to ensure that our historical experience is included in such projects.
Second, in the documentary a descendant of Dutch colonist, with black workers working in the background, tells the interviewer that the native blacks are unskilled and ill-equipped to do the work the enterprise required. I wonder who he thinks has been doing the work that has made his farm profitable up until the time he was expelled?
Why have the skills of our black ancestors been minimized or ignored when it made so many wealthy?
Black feminism, to my heart and mind, is about espousing the value of the workers and laborers, as well as everyone else. Its attention to equality and inclusion, feels more genuine and may offer a way forward in addressing the persistent issues of racism, classism, sexism, etc.
How does this translate into feminist art?
This piece (along with two others in this series) has been sold and is now in the private collection of R. Howard
Unlike much of what I have seen of feminist art that focuses on aspects of human physicality, my work seems to be more concerned with the experience of humanity from my cultural perspective(s).
I will post more pictures (eventually) of the more recent work(s) that are emerging as part of a "southern recollections" revisited series within my current cfAaP series.
On the way back from Spartanburg we drove through Newberry following the road that is now considered the scene of a recent hate crime. Although I had read about and discussed the occurrence previously with a family member who lives near the area, seeing the scene of the crime has left behind a different kind of psychic residue - a deep sadness. Still our communities can not honestly address the depth of the issues even when they bubble to the surface with such violence.
"All that is certain is that a Black man – 30-year-old Anthony Hill – was shot in the head with a shotgun and his body was then tied by rope to the back of a truck and dragged for over 10 miles along a rural road in Newberry County, South Carolina.
Law enforcement followed a trail of blood and gore to the home of a white co-worker Gregory Collins." Source: http://www.eurweb.com/?p=28609
As far as we have come, we still have so much farther to go. Where is the road from the past leading?
Earlier this year my father-in-law and my Mom met for the first time. We have been married for almost twenty years. Am I the only one who thinks that is odd at best and revealing in truth? It just so happens that we are an "interracial" couple....some would say that is beside the point.
I was thinking about how that event looked on the TimeLine of our lives, in relation to the place where they converged. Then I looked at other public history events and started to think about the BIG TimeLine of Humanity. I want to visualize, experience and share more deeply the personal in the public. Public history is not other, it has a relationship and contributes to the context of our personal histories. This has been a consistent idea since I started the What is Peace? series in this Cultural Fusion experience back in 2006. That project is anchored in my oral traditions and history work but I have been stuck about how to move it forward until now.
This TimeLine Installation represents a turning point because it accessible. It uses materials that are familiar which are presented in familiar environments. It is tricky to figure out where/when to push an audience and where/when to just BE with the audience in a sharing space.
I can't believe it has taken so long to take a serious look at this issue of feminist art and southern culture. Rather than a departure from the work I was doing prior, this is actually a deepening and framing of a topic that has gotten increasingly broad. Although I was looking at Life Learning and how it related to the various projects I am doing around cultivating/enhancing SOCIAL CAPITAL for community driven development....it does come down to some core issues that have been allowed to fester....given only band-aid attention.
The TimeLine itself though is not judgmental, it just is. It does not judge what did or did not happen, so I believe it will create a neutral space for multiple realities to co-exist allowing us to stand face to face with paradox, lies, truth, and recollections of them all.
I am using the IHMC Concept Mapping Tool to work out my idea for the online installation. Currently my idea is to use two different photographs to do two versions on different websites...the photographs will show different perspectives. On one the convergence point is clear with a more overhead view while the other is more straight on at ground level. Interaction - Posting Events on the TimeLine At this time my plan is to use existing tools to allow others to add events to the TimeLine - both personal and public history events. So you might add your birthday, the day you met your partner, the birthdays of your children, or when your parents married.
Then alongside that are the historical events that take place around the world but are not noted in history books or perhaps only one side is told. Now is your chance to chime in. Do you have a website about your parents escape from their nation of origin during political upheaval? Add that event and link to the resource in the TimeLine.
At this point I am planning to make it as easy as possible for people to contribute but at the same to deter SPAM posts.
IF YOU WANT TO COLLABORATE TO DEVELOP THIS PIECE - LET'S CONNECT! Where is this Going? I will be looking for alternate sites to install the piece to be videoed and photographed - I have two that are of special interest to me at this time.
The next incarnation of the online installation will be that those envelop years getting the most Attention will create a breeze - representing what we have termed Attention Gravity.
Next phase of interaction will be a postal project - I will invite people to contribute handmade envelops and post cards to represent A REQUEST FOR or GIFT OF Forgiveness. The place for those to be mailed will be posted once I have these first two installations done online.
In continuing to think about my response to the question of how feminist art and the movement have been internalized in the south. Feminist art wasn't really something we saw in our environment, those are among the least likely shows to have made it to my neck of the woods when I was growing up. If an artist insisted on showing work that was seen as inflammatory, then they find themselves without a place to show....unless one just put it out there beyond the ivory towers. The feminist movement has an example in the impact of "trickle down" theories. What have we learned about how this has worked in economics?
It has been the legal changes that have been the clearest evidence of its impact. For example, legislation ending the legalization of marital rape and domestic violence being taken more seriously.
Perhaps because basic assumptions of freedom were arguably more grievously overlooked in southern culture, that asserting ones worth and right to choose include and reach beyond the expected.
Generally speaking, once cases were overturned by the Supreme Court it would take about 20 years before the new laws were embraced or actually took affect down south. For example, Brown vs. Board of Education was a 1950 case ending racial segregation in schools under separate but equal. However the high school in the county where I attended did not integrate until 1970. Interracial marriage was legalized 1967 by a Supreme Court overturning Virgina ruling that said equal punishment for the crime of interracial marriage made the practice just. But when I was growing up it was not unusual for interracial couples to be asked to leave establishments, denied admission, or otherwise made to feel unwelcome or harassed. Even in 1989 when my husband I were newly coupled, I recall a BBQ place clearing out when we entered at lunchtime. The service was colder than the food we were served. It could be that all those people just happened to have to leave when we sat down - but I have not gone inside a BBQ restaurant since. On another occasion, I recall getting upset with a hostess who wanted to sit us in the back near the kitchen although the place was not crowded. Since it has happened previously, on that occasion I wanted to know why we were be seated in this dreadful dark corner by the kitchen. I didn't get an answer but we were given a better table.
The case that led to marital rape being called Rape was decided in 1970, I think, but certainly this and related issues made the lives of many women I knew difficult because lax enforcement and stigma can be more powerful than the law.
What is emerging is that I am curious about the class division in the feminist art movement as being related to the issues of Institutional Critique. I wonder if it is class as much as race that has been the issue limiting discourse around those topics relevant to women's movements. However, with little effort this emerges as a humanitarian and ecological movement - a shift towards peace building rather than war making.
What IF the opposite of war is CREATION? that is the question that reflections on the play Rent prompted me to Re-consider.
The Art Installations I recall from my early exposure were all in urban environments...usually presented in pristine sterile contexts. What happens if instead of fighting about the way it has been I put my attention on creating solutions... and then continue building on what I learn?
I put up the installation and a retired school teacher came over to ask about it. I briefly explained the art concept as being a TimeLine putting world events in the context of personal experiences to create a more accurate historical picture. She shared with me about her and her husband's family history as a (white) sharecropping family. His mother was known for the speed in the cotton field. She had met her husband when he returned from the Vietnam War.
I will be adding their events to the TimeLine.
The encounter demonstrated that put in a familiar setting that "high art" can attract those people who would avoid it in an institutional setting.
I have been revising the front page of the development site - working out an overview. I am actually working on client painting and an essay on feminist art. Although I had not intended it I find it touches upon my interest in Institutional Critique. Also as someone who grew up in the bible belt south - with few exceptions feminist art that I saw or read about did not satisfy. I don't know if I knew at the time what I was seeking. My work was calling me to explore to better understand "Self in Relation_to"...
What exposure to post modern ideas in feminist art did give me was insight into what was being done to break old rules to create new ones and that there was a place for thinking differently about things.
Ann Sprinkle Ph.D would have a perfectly valid way of developing a piece around the idea of sex in public spaces, but it is the approach and results of Lorna Simpson which would interest me more. Not because of anything having to do with race, gender, class, or sexuality. Looking first and foremost at the work I find Simpson's approach to be both intimate and intellectual.
Similar to the forerunners of web launched and maintained projects, Cultural Fusion is possible because of the webs potential to expand the scope in ways that would be cumbersome at best without computers and Information Technology.
"Learning to Love You More is both a web site and series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. Yuri Ono designs and manages the web site. Participants accept an assignment, complete it by following the simple but specific instructions, send in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and see their work posted on-line. Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience" Source:the Learning to Love You More website http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/hello/index.php
The Guerrilla Girls offers a historical perspective. In May 2010 they celebrated their 25th Anniversary. Pictured on their site are photographs documenting the first Guerrilla Girls posters. From the site http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs074/1101979383554/archive/1103354100081.html: "25 years ago, some posters went up on the streets of New York and all hell broke loose. The posters showed how bad things were for women artists in museums and galleries and everyone started talking about the issues. The press release from May 6, 1985 stated: "Simple facts will be spelled out; obvious conclusions can be drawn." The Guerrilla Girls were born!"
Faye Wattleton (born Alyce Faye Wattleton on July 8, 1943) is the first African-American and youngest President ever elected to Planned Parenthood (1978–1992). Currently, she serves as the President of the Center for the Advancement of Women, and also serves on the board of trustees at Columbia University. She is best known for her contributions to the family planning and reproductive health, as well as the pro-choice movement. Source: wikipedia
The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to make art that reflects women's lives and experiences, as well as to change the foundation for the production and reception of contemporary art. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_Art
How did I know? In the deconstruction of concepts and beliefs that has defined the process of developing Cultural Fusion - the movement had more influence because the discourse needed to explore inclusiveness as a practice.
At the same time that I am seeking a better understanding of my collaborators' personal culture I am also exploring what my internalized experience of being a southerner or whatever has given by way of personal vocabulary, style and culture. Each of us acts as a filter for the cultures that grow and en-hearten us - like a plant grown in regional soil, it flavors who we are. Yet, at the same time, we are part of a global family called humanity and it is those universal questions like "what can I do?" that has continued to move Cultural Fusion forward. Questions leading the way
At a personal level I have come to value my commitment to Pay Attention to the questions, feeling to learn how to distinguish the right questions from the distraction. But not for the purpose of avoiding the distraction. Instead the intention is to make a conscious selection between them - to increase awareness of their distinctions.
In addition to revising the main page of the Heuristic Model I exploring why Alice Walkers' womanist perspective contributed more to my cultural vocabulary as an artist than did any of the feminist visual artists I have been introduced to up until this point.
Just as I have learned to love my southern accent, I am likewise interested in how southern culture from a woman of African decent expresses itself as a matter of understanding pieces of a creative intellectual tradition.
How does this cultural foundation shape my experience with concepts in feminist art?
The video above featuring Paula McClain and Faye Wattleton addresses the issue of race and gender in terms that illuminate the limited impact of the feminist [art[ movement among women of color. Essentially the issue is one of different experiences and priorities. Where the experience of people of color has been systemically devalued a core part of the growth process is coming to find value in ones contributions and creations. I am working on this essay after being inspired by a call for submissions from a couple women's studies journals on feminist art.
While modern feminist art seems to have been shaped more by the misnomer that sexual experimentation and displays are the same as personal liberation I see the opportunity to invite consideration for inspiring deep contemplation about the valuation of the diverse experiences of women who live outside of academic institutions and lesbian cultures, not to exclude them and paying attention to including us. - Them and Us becomes We.
Finding the personal in the multifaceted feminist movement brings one face to face with those challenging issues of race and culture. Why is information of this quality much less accessible than the mindless objectification and degradation of women/people? How different might the learning experience of the public be were works
like Positively Breaking Taboos: Why and How I Made the Film "Period Piece" [with Responses] by Emily Erwin Culpepper, Gannit Ankori, Karen L. King, Sarah K. Peck and Claudia Ann Highbaugh were as easy to access as instructions to build an explosive device, latest public scandal or celebrity gossip.
Positively Breaking Taboos: Why and How I Made the Film "Period Piece" [with Responses] by Emily Erwin Culpepper, Gannit Ankori, Karen L. King, Sarah K. Peck and Claudia Ann Highbaugh Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Fall, 2006), pp. 125-153 (article consists of 33 pages) Published by: Indiana University Press on behalf of FSR, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20487867
Attention to inclusiveness has been conceptual rather than a matter of practical experience, and this is something I am interested in changing through my exploration of feminist thought in personal culture. I support gay marriage, reproductive AND BIRTHING freedom...life learning as a community solution for an educational system that is not working for many. The feminist agenda of interest to me is radically inclusive. Whereas my reaction to work Like Judy Chicago's Red flag seems to make that less of a priority. Might it have less resonance with women whose experience orients them towards sanitary pads rather than tampons? My issue was not one of finding the tampon or menstrual blood as a subject objectionable,[ to the contrary one of my favorite poems invites us to imagine the butterfly shaped blood stains we would leave if we abandoned all effort to contain and stop our blood flow for that one week each month.]
The impact of the feminist movement in southern culture is most evident in the new legal vocabulary where the consequences offer more deterrent leverage via the political organizing of feminist who have shaped changes in the justice systems perception of issues such as domestic violence could be seen as a race neutral policy issue. []N.Y.U. REVIEW OF LAW & SOCIAL CHANGE [Vol. 32:191-THE JUSTICE SYSTEM AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE:ENGAGING THE CASE BUT DIVORCING THE VICTIM by LAURIE S. KOHN*
20 Harv. Women's L.J. 263 (1997) Sex, Sense, and Sensibility: Trespassing into the Culture of Domestic Abuse; St. Joan, Jacqueline
The full implications of FREEDOM TO CHOOSE reaches far beyond sexual expression, religious affiliation or not, or reproductive choice to go to the core of personal identity. Birthing freedom seem to be regarded as less sexy topic gets far less attention. This is especially true when the range of choices is considered beyond the scope of sexual orientation. Of interest to me are the implications on FREEDOM life learning as core personal and social educational reality.
Alice Walker has writes about honoring the difficult in a way that speaks to the deconstruction of personal identity that finds race deeply embedded. When Walker is wrestling with the challenges of her relationship with her male partner of more than a decade at the same time that she was being attacked for her portrayal of men in her work (The Color Purple). The courage she demonstrates in presenting her characters and overcoming her fear of humiliation illuminate a space that compels me to insist that new spaces for intellectual and creative inquiry beyond the wall of ivory towers.
I feel that my frame of reference even in looking at my visual art vocabulary - is based on expression that is less brazenly sexual in the pornographic sense and more in the direction of the soulfully sensual with an orientation towards the union [collaboration or sharing] and creation [art, meals, life, etc.]. I have always been too traditional to be fully Bohemian and too Bohemian to be fully embrace tradition - moving back and forth in the space in between and on the margins. Not trapped in either room.
The Discovery: Paradigm(s) of Possibility
Cultural Fusion Art as Philosophy [an Art:Series and an Art:Movement] that has given birth to a number of solutions and methods for discovering solutions.
This approach defies the walls separating knowledge silos and industries.
More than brainstorming - Source Art that has emerged from Cultural Fusion gives you the experience and insights that come from uniting head and heart to work together. Using an A/r/tographic approach that engages Institutional Critique on occasion while paying attention to where questions lead.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 16, 2009) — Reading a book by Franz Kafka –– or watching a film by director David Lynch –– could make you smarter.
Cultural Fusion Mission:
To apply art based approaches to help clients and collaborators address the challenges, explore the ideas of interest to them and experience awareness that sees beyond known needs to discover potential.
Artist Statement: from Yvette (evolving)
Seeking to explore ,engage, and apply Cultural Fusion art based approaches to create community/public art that also act as multilateral solutions for new ideas, technology & models for addressing complex challenges. This includes integrating personal experience story narratives that contribute to the evolution of opportunities and artwork.
What if the opposite of war is creation?
What if [Compassion + Generosity of spirit]] = the other L word?
What if forgiveness heals?
This Art Based reseach explores/advances a new paradigm that eliminates or greatly reduces poverty (materially and spiritually) based on promoting value of diverse expressions in arts & oral tradition, innovation that empowers the best in individuals within communities/organizations/businesses, andRadical Inclusionas a norm. With the mission to create Art:Work that delivers solutions to automate global social responsibility.
Specific areas of interest include: Creating/Advancing technology for sustainable living, developing/researching system models as a means to Ending or decreasing Poverty. addressing issues related to homelessness & hunger, Ending Slavery/Human Trafficking, domestic violence.
As an inquiry into art with purpose the Art Based research seeks as a component of functionality the project aspires to result in the information technology and social system infrastructures that support easy glocal (globally local) deployment of new projects as part of this Art:Work first and foremost. As communities of practice become a more normalized concept the concept of community itself expands. People are now having to learn to manage global relationships in terms of geographical spaces giving way to a range of meet-up events uniting a few or many. The concept of region is being redefined and the impact of innovation will serve some regions over others.
Using Art as the base line, the spaces between the business market view and human/ecological services can be seen and experienced as a paradox.
Painting above is another from the most recent series. The poem below is one I wrote as part of an art based research dialogue on educational reform. The painting came first but is about the broader scope of interest to me as it has been expressed in cfAaP House of Cards diagram and installation concept..but as the thread connecting the frames shows some systemic elements link all the others. One of the major challenges is that most people are overwhelmed by the big picture but "solutions" made without this level of understanding often do more harm than good...and by the time that is obvious the damage is done. What is the alternative?
Warning: The Tower is Haunted
Ghosts of the plantations and overseers
loom and creak until
replaced
by Research Studios and the vision of Source Artists
Here is an excerpt from my a-n.co.uk: Artist Talking, Exposing contemporary artists' practice 
