[AH index]  [^^Terms INDEX]
Judy Chicago
See also:  [Feminism]
             [Feminism: The Usual Suspects]
           [Art Talk, by Cindy Nemser]

           [Robert Delaunay () (aka, Mr. Sonia Delaunay)
           [Linea Glatt]

Judy Chicago

aka "Judy Cohen", 

"Everyone was going to see who she really was: Woman Jew" (self portrait); b, b^2.

Src:  "Judy Chicago - An American Vision", by the one and only
      Edward Lucie-Smith, ISBN 0.8230.2585.3 (Watson-Guptil, New York, 2000).

Father was a union organiser, mother worked as well, "My mother, who
wanted to be a danser, gave me a lot of encouragement. She told me 
many stories about her life prior to her marriage, when she went
to the Jewish People's Institute ?ref? and mingled with musicians,
poets, and other creative people. Througout my childhood, she told 
me colorful tales about the creative life, particularly when I was
sick in bed, and these stories contributed to my developing
interest in art, for, from the time I was young [she began drawing
at age 3], I wanted to be an artist." 

She remembered that it was her father who, by devising games for
her and asking her questions, trained her in logic and maths and
who gave her a sense of human values. She also remembers that 
because her mother worked, and because women -- among them aunts
and cousins - participated fully in the discussions that went on
in the household, she "grew up with a sense that I could do what 
I wanted and be what I wanted".  -- Loc. Cit, P. 13.



Quotes


Important works

NOTES:  All quotes lifted from the Lucie-Smith work and are by
        Ms. C. unless otherwise noted.

Recent works (1997) include a (hopefull) piece that illustrates
peoples (and species) of all beliefs/races joining hands around a 
table in honor of the Shabat (sabath). I tip my towel (the dancing
dolphins one) in the general direction of a certain windy city
whose name she chose to honor with her work.


The Birth Project 


One problem with this work (I think) is that we are
taught that all experiences that involve the letting
of blood (ie, bleeding) are to be associated with
pain (and thus subtlely with death). As such, the
idea that 1/2 of the human population periodically
(every 28 days) bleeds as a part of life, is in
this *programming* seen as a weakness (we need only
to examine the forbidding of women to touch any
holy object in the old testament to see that). Also,
the concept of birth (which of necessity must be
considered *the* essential event in life), is some-
how robbed of any mystical aspects, indeed it is
derrogated and disdained. Thus, instead of a 
celebration, birth is somehow even more obscured
and "kept off of the verbal agenda" than any other
bodily function -- even that of death. And this
"mythicos" that birth is somehow bad, is to such
an extent that the process of birth is not seen 
as steps toward healing (ie, the pain of birth is
a release from the process of inception) -- and i
make no metaphysical reference here, but that the
physical process of giving birth to another human
being is manifested in so much pain (added to by 
the current oby-gyn practice of having the woman
lay flat on her back just because it is easier on
the attending physician (still mostly men). 
-- After finishing his philosophical diatribe that
   clearly showed him for the drongo that he was,
the learned "philosopher" stepped down off of his
soap box, and fell face-first into a recently 
deposited load of horse hockey. 

The Holocautst Project 

  "I chose tapestry [as the medium], which I believe is
   the perfect technique for this subject matter, because
   I wanted to emphasize how the Holocaust grew out of

   the very fabric of Western Civilization". -- 1987

Power Play, Abulations, etc...

  "I didn't want to keep perpetuating the use of
   the female body as the repository of so many
   emotions; it seemed as if everything was 
   projected onto the female by both male and
   female artists. I wondered what feelings the
   male body might be made to express. Also, I 
   wanted to understand why men acted so violently.
   -- 1966

Selected Components:
    Driving the World to Destruction   
    Pissing on the World

  "Chicago was to return to this topic [ie, male violence towards
   women]  in a  more serious [emphasis mine] fashion in
   Ablutions, a collaborative performance piece presented
   only one occasion, in Venice, CA in 1972. The sound track, 
   played throughout the performance, consisted of a tape of women 
   describing their real-life experience of being raped. One 
   performer, nude, was shown being bound, mummy-like to a chair.
   Other women bathed in different tubs filled with eggs, blood,
   and clay. Yet other women nailed bloody kidneys to the wall or 
   adorned themselves with chains. Finally, all the figures bound
   together with rope." -- Edward Lucie-Smith, Op. Cit, P.37.

   "Round and round the women walked, tying everything up neatly
    like some obsessive house-keeping duty, until the performance
    area was like a spider web and all the figures were caught,
    contained, bound by their circumstances and their own
    self-victimisation." -- Judy Chicago, 1975, Appendix, p. 219

   "The theme of violence against women also surfaces in prints 
    Chicago made at this time, such as Love Story and
    Gunsmoke"
   --- Edward Lucie-Smith, Loc. Cit., P. 39.

In the photo-print of "Love Story", a woman on all fours -- only
her rear end and legs visible -- and an arm from right holding a 
small gun thrust up towards her anus [Edward Lucie-Smith maintains 
vagina here], finger clearly on the trigger.

The text below [From the "Story of O", as Lucie-Smith points out,
from Jean Paulhan (editor 1925-40 of La Nouvelle Revue Francaise]
as follows (all capitals, Sans serif font, both right and left 
margins aligned/justified)

   YOU ARE HERE SERVE YOUR MASTERS. YOUR MOUTH, YOUR BELLY AND 
   YOUR BEHIND ARE CONSTANTLY AT OUR ENTIRE/DISPOSAL. YOUR HANDS 
   ARE NOT YOUR OWN, NEITHER ARE YOUR BREEATS, NOR ABOVE ALL, IS 
   ANY ONE OF YOUR OFIFICES/OF YOUR BODY, WHICH WE ARE AT LIBERTRY
   TO EXPLORE AND INTO WHICH WE MAY, WHENEVER WE SO PLEASE, 
   INTRODUCE OUR-/SELVES. A HASSOCK WAS PLACED AS A SUPPORT UNDER 
   HER CHEST; HER HANDS WERE FIXED BEHIND HER BACK, HER HAUNCHES/
   WERE HIGHER THAN HER TORSO. ONE OF THE MEN GRIPPED HER BUTTOCKS
   AND SANK HIMSELF INTO HER WOMB. WHEN HE WAS/DONE, HE CEDED HIS
   PLACE TO A SEOND, THE THIRD WANTED TO DRIVE HIS WAY INTO THE
   NARROWER PASSAGE, AND PUSHING/HARD, VIOLENTLY WRUNG A SCREAM
   FROMHER LIPS. WEN AT LAST HE LET GO OF HER, MOANING AND TEARS
   STREAMING/DOWN UNDER HER BLINDFOLD, SHE SLIPPED SIDEWISE TO THE
   FLOOR ONLY TO DISCOVER BY THE PRESSURE OF TWO KNEES/AGAINST HER
   FACE THAT HER MOUTH WAS NOT TO BE SPARED EITHER. IT WAS WITH
   HER MOUTH STILL HALF-GAGGED BY THE/HARDENED FLESH FILLING IT 
   THAT SHE BROUGHT OUT, THICKLY, THE WORDS: "I LOVE YOU". "SAY
   IT ONCE AGAIN. SAY I LOVE YOU." O SAID: "I LOVE YOU".
   
That much of civilisation has been destroyed by men (probably almost
as much as has been made by men) is pretty much a given. We have
only to look at the list of famous wariors (war does not make one
great, yoda sez). So, towards that end, the world spins on. As
to who is to blame, we ultimately must say (as Pogo the O'possum
sez) "We have met the enemy and he is us."  Or to put it more
succinctly, if Lystiria (?sp? ref->lit: greek play) were to come to pass
then there should be no more war and no more suffering. But, alas
there will always be "those" women (not womyn) who are attracted
to power, and far from restraining "thier men" from waging senseless
war and "going for it", they encourage and support them full-forcedly.
(as i see it) anger comes only out of frustration. Now as to where
*greed* comes from it would appear to originate out of a fear of
death -- and hence the phrase "he who dies with the most toys, wins".

aND in the END, many will always reply with great certitude (and
even GREATer sure-ity:  SHE PROBABLY DESERVED IT.

(and it was at this point, that the great philosopher spit out a 
 hugh wad of horse hockey and having nothing better to say, said
 shit.  And thinking that this was in-appropriate for one soe
 learned, smiled and said, "I hate manure")

The Dinner Party

    "[Chicago's] 'The Dinner Party' is to date the most 
    celebrated -- some would say the most notorious -- of
    all of Judy Chicago's artistic enterprises. Over the 
    years it has been praised and execrated in almost equal
    measures. Its have included people who think of themselves
    as committed feminists, as well as those who feel most 
    threatented by feminism. Its historical importance can
    not be denied -- it is now mentioned, and usually illustrated,
    in almost all surveys of the developement of the visual arts
    in the second half of the 20th century."  
    -- Edward Lucie-Smith, Loc. Cit, P.59
 
Her most comonly sited work is the so-calle "Dinner Party". 
This work consists of "25 women who were eaten alive". 
The work consists of a triangle of 25 place settings, the
dinner served up is mostly the vicera, vaginal dishes, etc.
These are laid out on table cloths that are ostensibly the
very skin of the person to whom the place setting it dedicated.
The list include Virginia Wolf, Georgia O'Keeffe, Eleanor of
Aquitaine, Natilie  Barney, and of course Emily Dickenson.  
One of the most moving is the place setting to "Priomordial 
Goddess" in gold, with money cawries (shells) attached. The 
Dinner plate reminding one of the folds of a curtain, revealing 
within a theatre stage, lit in dark red -- awaiting whatever 
drama is about to out-fold and illuminate us with wisdom of 
the arcane feminine mysteries.

In addition, there are a series of "entry posters" (cloth tapestries)
welcoming the visitors in with motoes such as: 
"And she made for them a sign", "And lo, They saw a vision", "And 
she gathered all before her". 

Actually (i feel), that i never really saw Emily Dickenson as a
female (or at least as a sexual person; no more than i view Walt
Witman, Edgar Alan Poe, or Langston Hughes -- or for that matter
Dorthy Parker or Jorge Luis Borges, Mark Twain, or for that matter
Joan Diddion). As an expression of sexuality (which i do not feel
is the primary focus of the work), or at least feminimity -- as
response to the male-dominated world of art, the work works simply
because of the textures involved. If we can (for a moment) lift
ourselves out of literality of the images and become Mandrake the
Martian we then view this wondrous set of images as indeed a 
celebration of feminimity in the same way that sexual attributes
were almost completely shunned by the Ancient Greeks; eg, no
erect penises, no vaginal views, and no "bum holes" -- compare
with Gilbert and George's "Bum Holes". Thus (i would say) for 
the simple reason that we can not (or will not) separate our
*sexual* feelings/biaes/visual-dictionaries/preference/etc/etc/etc...
from our view of nature as "male-ness" or "female-ness" or "nether-ness".
That is, until we can view a penis or vagina or bum hole as a natural
work of biology (and hence since our brain is attached to this
body thing), then the works will be vilified by many, understood
by fewer, and (unfortunately) views by even less. But, then that
is the same as Auguste Rodin's "Victor Hugo and the Muses" (indeed the
Thinker was considered *obscene*, Roger Bacon's male nudes, and
Chicago's Dinner Party. But, for my money the human race is about
as *humane* as a bunch of slobbering idiots worrying not about
their fellow human-type persons, but more about how their 
stocks are doing on the market and how the tsunami will affect
the price of high-fructose corn-syrup futures on the commodities
market in the morning.

(It was at this point, that supposedly-learned (and much leaning
to the left) philosopher/poet picked himself up, brushed off as
much of the horse hockey that he could and adjusting his towel, 
hobbled off in the general direction of the library).

--42--
Pizo, 05/02/16; peace - always.

Chronology


Needleworker's Loft 
(THe Dinner Party, ca. 1977, Santa Monica, CA)