The topical idea of Feminism/ FEMME FOR ALL

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Last week there was a show Welcome Home curated by Sofia Arreguin and Valerie Shusterov held at CalArts in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Womanhouse —the 1971 groundbreaking art installation and performance space curated by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro, co-founders of CalArts’ Feminist Art Program.

Welcome Home is a group show representing over 30 female artists with works of different media coming together to voice the modern feminist perspective. - Sofia and Valerie.

Some of us had a discomfort with the concept of it being an only woman show. And put a parallel/ complimentary show titled Femme For All (at CalArts), which was put together in an open call for discussion on feminism through art. A collective and collaborative show displaying various voices and positions in an open dialogue about current feminist issues.

I believe when ideas are re-created in a different time and an evolved community, their place needs to be understood in the community then (period they were created in), and a similar experience needs to be shared now (in the time and society you are re-generating the experience). Also, while I went through the Welcome Home show, there was a high heterosexual energy that the show generated. And also a singular structure of power. While the Femme For All show was more fluid, and topical.

A critique which could be put in this situation, I sited while re-reading the preface of Gender Trouble by Judith Butler.

It was and remains my view that any feminist theory that restricts the meaning of gender in the presuppositions of its own practice sets up exclusionary gender norms within feminism, often with homophobic consequences. It seemed to me, and continues to seem, that feminism ought to be careful not to idealize certain expressions of gender that, in turn, produce new forms of hierarchy and exclusion.

Why the jelly monster did not sit on a pancake?

I have not been posting anything for a few days. I didn’t even wish people a Happy New Year (except for those who were spammed by an email). This is a summary of what kept me busy in the last few months, between traveling to different cities, and some arduous paper work.

1. Upcoming- Pratibimb will be showcased at Format Photography Festival 2011 at the Deda Space in Derby, UK. (March/April 2011.)

There are more upcoming events. I will (hopefully) post another update in sometime.

2. Motherland (W+ K Magazine) features Pratibimb, as POP CULTURALISTA. With ‘Monkey from Ram’s Army’ on the cover. (Jan/ Feb 2011.)

I love what Annette has written about this work in her editorial note.

3. An interview with Peter Nagy, published in Art & Deal. (Feb 2011)

4. Photography Award for ‘Unvoiced‘, Toto Funds the Arts- TASVEER. Presentation and award ceremony at Alliance Françoise de Bangalore, January 2011.

In between - Lakshwadeep holiday.

5. Artist presentation at FICA-Reading Room during the launch of ‘Camerawork Delhi Issue 7′. New Delhi, December 2010.

In between - My mother and I are friend’s on Facebook.

6. Unvoiced at Blindboys Blowup- Angkor Photography Festival 2010, Siem Reap, Cambodia, November 2010.

7. ‘Freedom’ was the theme for last year’s Nigah Queer Fest- Visual Arts Exhibit curated by Sunil Gupta. The Pink Boys! were on the wall. Max Mueller Bhawan, New Delhi, November/ December 2010.

8. Untitled Square, video- installation and a public art project, Urban Typhoon, a KHOJ- URBZ collaboration. New Delhi, November 2010.

In between- Registered a domain name. Finally!

9. Presented Indian Christmas* and exhibited Unvoiced at Blindboys- Blow Up and Blow & Tell event held at The Greenhouse, New Delhi, October 2010.

*Indian Christmas, a part of ‘Cloud, Tree, Candy floss‘ is an enquiry on how visuals are de-contextualised because of change in culture.

10. ‘Spit Wide Open’ was a part of 36 EXP., book and exhibition, curated by Jack Howard, Musea and Visual Art Society, Manchester. October 2010.

I am sure there are many things I have missed out. However this gives a brief idea. Hoping for another eventful year, and wishing you a very Happy New Year!

Sex and Landscapes

Untitled 2, Untitled Series.

Looks like a book with old yellow pages, that smell good. Sex and Landscapes one of the most common practices. As an artist sometimes we really miss having those nights when we suddenly get up because there is a new idea, and are up till next morning trying to make it happen. Once you have a certain audience, it becomes a responsibility to deliver (shoulder pain). Having skipped those nights, with dismay, we deliver tried and tested stories. They NEVER fail. Stories that have been a part of learning. We like something, and think it to be almighty, over a period of time we meet god. Then we face another sleepless fruitful night, and find a new supreme being.
I wonder if the audience grows with the artist, or it just turns its back… because he is too fast/slow/unpredictable. But then, there is a new audience. And you also feel responsible to train the old crowd. That is when some shoo you off.
Every new moonlight romances with a distinct ego. Sometimes you like some, and sometimes you like many.

[The title for the post comes from Helmut Newton's book. Write and Photograph by Vidisha Saini.]

@DP

What is art?

firstly, What is Photography? (as DP sees mostly photographers).

How many people understand photography completely? ‘Photography’ has such a wide usage, that even though it demands a singular identity it cannot be well-defined.

A photograph is a singular piece of work with multiple characteristics, and while accepting a photograph you need to accept it as a whole. Photography possesses characteristics no other art form does; it is a proof as well as a perception.

Photography is a simple thing photographers are not. After a performance they tend to push it under a sub-heading, or a sub- sub- heading, some even further.

Art, and especially art in its market is a product of lot a of things; it involves design, fashion (read- fashion is lifestyle, not just clothing trends define fashion), history, economics, and it involves politics. Photographs are visuals, the study of which demands context. Some are known for their historical context, some have cultural references. After a photographer has practiced creating visually seductive photographs, he can create more such photographs, but when he puts them up to face an audience he needs to know why is he showing them?

You must be having some old family photographs, do they all follow the norms of good photography technique? But, they do make you smile/cry. Now that family photograph is a successful (good) photograph.

Art unlike design motivates and is not a final/only product. It creates debates, criticism, and it inspires.

‘Family of a man’

I am posting you a photograph. I call it ‘Family of a man’.

I am sure each one of us have a story about this particular family of a man, I would love each one of you to share your story. as in who is who?

they do what?

xyz (complete/incomplete).

Post in a comment.

The Nature of (writing about) Photography.

It has been months that I have been trying to write something about photography. The last I wrote was a colloquium paper, which apparently didn’t solve an academic purpose for somebody. After that I have been trying to put together an exhibition review, an article about contemporary practice in India, and also on post-modern photography. But guess what, I am not able to do it.

The other day  I read ‘The Nature of Photographs’ by Stephen Shore. A friend gave it to me accompanied with a remark about how he didn’t understand what Stephen Shore (apparently his favorite photographer) is trying to say. Then he was commenting about how it is different from general writing, I read a chapter from that book, and I got back to what my friend had to talk about the writing. While I was reading it, I was smiling, and I also understood most of it. With an experience of putting together a year long research project in just 1900 words. I was able to understand the reader (my friend), and the writer (Stephen Shore). We started discussing about how this might be a good photography writing, but is not a good general writing.

This comment solved a lot of things in my head. It explained about the review my colloquium paper should exactly get, and it also put the writing experience in words.

What is photography writing? While going through the text, there are in a lot of places incomplete sentences, or just comments and adjectives, which are related to photography history or a photography incident, or some technique. So, for someone who understands these things about photography, he enjoys reading it. And the rest find it vague and insufficient. This not only happens in photography writing but is a characteristic of writing itself. Using metaphor, incorrect grammar (referring to it’s popular use) or ‘lipstick’ in your piece.

‘On Photography’ by Susan Sontang, seems to be more popular, because in that she refers to general events, and here any reader can visualise what she is trying to say. While we are reading there is a parallel image formation that happens in your mind, and when we don’t understand something it is like a bad tv signal. Looking at newspaper writing, it is for the masses but even if one cannot relate to an event, it seems lacking.

Getting back to photography writing, sometimes when you are asked to write about something that you have been trying to understand for very long, you can write long pages. So, basically you decide who your audience is? Who is it that you would like to be understood by? This is when I talk about trying to identify a vernacular, an amateur and a professional. Also, understand the knowledge, and exposure of your professional. May be you earn some bread out of photography, or  you have been practicing for 30 years does not mean you will understand it as a subject. There is much more to a subject than it’s practice.

About my colloquium paper, it is a photography writing, and not a general writing. It does not solve a purpose for every design academician. But it does justify conclusions and has many references to larger contexts in photography (historical events, internal politics etc.). Because I don’t like to expand about what I am thinking and what is that I want to state, the paper sums up in 1900 words. And also includes only 3 (/7) illustrations.

Though to many it might be a bad TV signal.