Womanhouse, CalArts 1970s Feminist Art Collaboration

Womanhouse was an art experiment that addressed the experiences of women. Twenty-one art students refurbished an abandoned house in Los Angeles and turned it into a provocative 1972 exhibit. Womanhouse received national media attention and introduced the public to the idea of Feminist Art. The students came from the new Feminist Art Program at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). They were led by Judy Chicago  and Miriam Schapiro. Paula Harper, an art historian who also taught at CalArts, suggested the idea to create a collaborative art installation in a house. The purpose was more than just to showcase womens art or art about women.   The purpose, according to Linda Nochlins bok on Miriam Schapiro, to  help women  restructure their personalities to be more consistent with their desires to be  artists and to help them build their art making out of their experiences as  women. One inspiration was Judy Chicagos discovery that a womans building had been part of the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The building was designed by a woman architect, and many art works, including one by Mary Cassatt, were featured there. The House The abandoned house in the urban Hollywood area was condemned by the city of Los Angeles. The Womanhouse artists were able to postpone the destruction until after their project. The students devoted enormous amounts of their time in late 1971 to refurbishing the house, which had broken windows and no heat. They struggled with repairs, construction, tools, and cleaning out the rooms that would later house their art exhibits. The Art Exhibits Womanhouse was opened to the public in January and February of 1972, gaining a national audience. Each area of the house featured a different work of art.   â€Å"Bridal Staircase,† by Kathy Huberland, showed a mannequin bride on the stairs. Her long bridal train led to the kitchen and became progressively grayer and dingier along its length. One of the most famous and memorable exhibits was Judy Chicago’s â€Å"Menstruation Bathroom.† The display was a white bathroom with a shelf of feminine hygiene products in boxes and a trash can full of used feminine hygiene products, the red blood striking against the white background. Judy Chicago said that however women felt about their own menstruation would be how they felt seeing it depicted in front of them. Performance Art There were also performance art pieces at Womanhouse, initially done for an all-female audience and later opened to male audiences as well. One exploration of men’s and women’s roles featured actors playing â€Å"He† and â€Å"She,† who were visually depicted as male and female genitalia. In â€Å"Birth Trilogy,† performers crawled through a â€Å"birth canal† tunnel made of the legs of other women. The piece was compared to a Wiccan ceremony. The Womanhouse Group Dynamic The Cal-Arts students were guided by Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro to use consciousness-raising and self-examination as processes that preceded making the art. Although it was a collaborative space, there were disagreements about power and leadership within the group. Some of the students, who also had to work at their paying jobs before coming to labor at the abandoned house, thought that Womanhouse required too much of their devotion and left them no time for anything else. Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro themselves disagreed about how closely Womanhouse should be tied to the CalArts program. Judy Chicago said things were good and positive when they were at Womanhouse, but became negative once they were back on the CalArts campus, in the male-dominated art institution. Filmmaker Johanna   Demetrakas made a documentary film called Womanhouse about the feminist art event. The 1974 film includes the performance art pieces as well as reflections by the participants. The Women The two primary movers behind Womanhouse were Judy Chicago and Miriam Shapiro. Judy Chicago, who changed her name to that from Judy Gerowitz in 1970, was one of the major figures in Womanhouse. She was in California to establish a Feminist Art Program at Fresno State College. Her husband, Lloyd Hamrol, was also teaching at Cal Arts. Miriam Shapiro was in California at that time, having originally moved to California when her husband Paul Brach was appointed dean at Cal Arts. He accepted the appointment only if Shapiro would also become a faculty member.   She brought her interest in feminism to the project. A few of the other women involved included: Faith WildingBeth BachenheimerKaren LeCocqRobbin Schiff Edited and updated with content added​ by Jone Johnson Lewis.

Essay On The Ability To Perceive Quietness - 792 Words

the ability to perceive quietness today much of our society is overtaken by distractions such as social media, texting, tweeting, making calls, as well as other things making us too busy in our everyday lives to be able to sit down and take a deep breath. We as people have so many things running through our brains all at one time we can never just take a moment to ourselves and think. I myself even find it hard to separate myself from everyday distractions like my cell phone, and computer so, I decided to take two, one hour sessions in two separate locations to record and analyze everything I heard and witnessed during those two sessions of silence without any possible distractions. The first session of silence that I conducted was†¦show more content†¦Not tonly do I hear music but I hear the sound of kids playing games in the basement as they scream and laugh. Not only where the sounds joyous but the aroma of cookies, butter horns, and chocolate truffles filled the air and before I even knew it the hour was up and it was actually a quite pleasant experience that I had just listening to everything going on and it made me realize that life shouldn’t be about who’s doing what on social media and what’s going on in the news, but it should be about what you’re doing in that moment and who your with that makes it special. I would never have realized that with my phone in front of me and I think if we asShow MoreRelatedThe Taming Of The Shrew Essay1796 Words   |  8 PagesThe Taming of the Shrew Essay On the The Taming of the Shrew’s very surface, it is seen as a misogynistic attempt to enforce gender roles and stereotypes by showcasing the transformation of a fiery, free-spirited woman to a silenced, subjugated wife. The play revolves around the two protagonists, Katharina and Petruchio, as the pair battle over psychological domination. The residents of Padua perceive Kate as a devious and hateful woman towards the beginning of the play, earning her the seeminglyRead MoreMr Benett and the Failures of Fatherhood8365 Words   |  34 Pagesattributing no theoretical to her work; she admitted preten having significance sions at all, claiming only accuracy and proportion and wit for her vir tues.1 once Despite again the her well-known of demurrers, subject in Jane I want Austens in this essay to raise canvass problem novels?to to social from a sociological point of view the nature of her response and economic in English society. My reason for sifting over the changes in the evidence is that I think an adjustment already finely groundRead MoreIgbo Dictionary129408 Words   |  518 Pagesillustrated the meaning and use of words; the great majority of the examples are due to him. Their merit is that they are not translations from English, but natural Igbo sentences elicited only by the stimulus of the word they illustrate. The short essays which appear from time to time (e.g. under otà ¹tà ¹, à ²Ã¯â‚¬ ¤gbanÌ„je) on aspects of culture are also his work, as are the sketches which served as basis for the illustrations, a large number of new words, and various features of the arrangement. When he had

Long Term Academic Goals Free Essays

My long term academic goal is obtain a bachelor’s degree. That goal is first broken down into semesters in which I take two courses at a time. I am currently taking two courses, and this is my first semester. We will write a custom essay sample on Long Term Academic Goals or any similar topic only for you Order Now I break down the semester into weeks, doing work on a weekly basis. At the beginning of the week, which for me is Monday, I estimate how long it will take me to complete that weeks reading assignment. I divide that time by five days, as I prefer not to read on the weekend, and I read that many hours each day. So, for example, if I estimate that I have five hours’ worth of reading or the week, I would read for an hour each day. In regard to priorities, I establish them by due date of assignments, and amount of work due each class. I try to do the heaviest work load first. My support group consists of my family and friends. I usually talk to them on a daily basis on my commute to work, and I tell them about the work I am doing for each class each week. They listen attentively, and offer advice on how to complete the work in a timely fashion, such as setting aside time each day for school work. My brother is particularly supportive, as both he and I started college when we were both young, and he is Curious as to the changes that have happened over the years. My backup plan in case my computer goes down is twofold. First, I have my laptop on which I can access the internet. On the laptop, I have MS Word, so I can do my assignments. If both my main computer and my laptop go down, I have access to my brother’s laptop, which has MS Word on It as well. I also have access to the internet via my local public library. Finally, I keep track of my assignments and due dates via a paper desktop calendar and my Blackberry. The desktop calendar Is on my work desk. I write every assignment on the date that It Is due on the calendar. When I complete an assignment, I check It off with a purple highlighter. I also put the assignment Into my Blackberry calendar, and set an alarm to go off at 10:00 AM of the date the assignment Is due. Since assignments are not due until midnight of the day they are due, If the assignment Is still outstanding, I have fourteen hours to complete It. This gives me adequate time to still complete the assignment. How to cite Long Term Academic Goals, Papers