‘For us the category of feminist art has acted as a way of reading the material, a tool for clarifying questions of sex, gender and power…an unfixed and ever changing process in which our understanding of identity, body, sexuality, biology, nature and culture play a decisive role.’
‘Konstfeminism!’(‘Feminist Art’), the 2005 exhibition, held at Liljevalchs Konsthall in Stockholm indicated to me that feminism is particularly active in Sweden. The work exhibited spanned from the 1960’s to the 21st century. The show’s aim was commendably ambitious, attempting to pay quality attention to the many areas of Feminism, and to comment on the two in-depth and ‘comprehensive’ issues concerning the art system generally- firstly, women artist’s attitude towards its development since the 1970s. Secondly, the conversation art practice has with feminist theory, in terms of how the fields have influenced one and another. The political movement itself was emphasised in its plurality through the variety of artworks included. I was struck by how many this amounted to and the innovative and how exciting they could be. I am baffled as to why I have not heard or seen many of them before, as my own practice often draws inspiration from contemporary female, feminist artists.
I have selected a few artists from ‘Konstfeminism!’ and their exhibited works, and some that I have subsequently researched. Mentioned in the catalogue introductory passages is the ethos of the show which, emphasises that art and feminism are ‘integral’, and presumably the curators feel no need to separate the two as subject matter. Perhaps this is due to the title ‘Woman Artist’. The very act of adding the word ‘woman’ to a profession that is now not exclusive to one gender perpetually implies them as an exception. The idea presented by ‘Konstfeminism!’ is that by the very act of a woman making art, marks a feminist alignment, due to the inequalities rooted the field.
"After seeing the exhibition, you realize that the openness of today's art comes from the emancipation movement of the '70s." (G. Pollock)
Benedicte Bergmann, ' Livmodern (Detail)’, 1980
Benedicte Bergmann’s piece, ‘Livmodern’ (1980) struck me as an important example of innovative installation and multimedia art making. The vaginal-resembling tent is a playful and celebratory example of imposing the female sex in a similar way as the phallus has been, and still is, in our visual experience. This is also true of Cilla Ericson. I particularly enjoy her simple, and almost archaic style of sculpting the female body. This is something I have aimed for in my own work.
These ‘womanettes’, were sculptural explorations, developed from certain buzzwords such as ‘bulbousness’, ‘voluptuousness’ and ‘growth’, to produce tactile interpretations of the female form. I reduced the feminine features to create signifiers, to make fun of what women are so often judged for. Displaying the few physical attributes by themselves indicates the absurdity of this idea.
Annika Liljedahl is an example of the contemporary artists included in the show. Her work seems to take material and physical qualities, stereotypically associated with the feminine, and crudely yet skilfully mashes them together to form grotesque and almost comic and figurative forms. Liljedahl’s work specifically answers to the exhibition’s aim of responding and recognising elements of artworks that do not strictly relate with, in particular periods of times, what is deemed as ‘art’.
The selection of artworks for ‘Konstfeminism!’ proposed to centre on the themes of narratives, and notions concerning sex, gender and power. In the work I have chosen to exemplify, the body seems to be the most common visual tool utilised, which does not seem, superficially, to tackle a variety of strategies for feminist art aesthetically. However, I am drawn to them in how they influence my own practice, and should not dominate any other’s view of the show as a whole.
I recently visited a retrospective of French/American artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) at the Tate Liverpool. I went to research her use of found objects in representing the female form. It was interesting that the exhibition put the artist forward as a political artist but not a distinctly feminist artist. The catalogue, gallery guide and curation of work were hugely biographical (obviously anticipated as it is a retrospective). Yet, the word ‘feminist’ surprisingly, was not used concerning her depictions of women as the mother, whore and virgin. The explicative texts for each room, mention feminist themes of inequalities and entrapments of women yet distinctly avoided specific words that would indicate an explicit ideological grounding. I wonder if this is because of Liverpool’s aspiring profile of ‘Cultural Capital of Europe’, and the sometimes-hostile attitude to Feminist thought apparent in today’s society, directed a dampening of this motivating element and integral aspect of de Saint Phalle’s work.
Benedicte Bergmann, ' Livmodern (Detail)’, 1980[2]
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