Tanyth Berkeley.

From The Field series.






Tab.arloartists.com

Lorna Simpson

For bits of reasons I’ve been in & out of New York a lot lately. But I make time to travel for pleasure often because pleasure animates and nurtures important parts of physical, emotional, and intellectual life. Pleasure is also closely related to that happiness thing. Anyway, when I was in Brooklyn most recently I made it a Point! to visit Brooklyn Museum upon the advice of a special friend. Maybe this is worth noting because despite spending lots and lots of weeks on those silly New York streets I hadn’t ever ventured into a museum outside of Manhattan; the advice was well-needed and well-taken. My Canon 20D is big & heavy, I only make room for it on about half of my travels because I travel lightly. So, instead, I took loads of impatient photos on my iPhone. None of this is the point. The point is, the Brooklyn Museum houses the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art! I want to post more of what I saw exhibited there, but at the very least I have to share a bit of Lorna Simpson‘s work, Gathered.





I zeroed in on the images of chess. If you’ve been around me with a card deck and some beers (and cash), you probably know I am (extra?) competitive when drunk. This is especially true in the case of chess.

About halfway through walking the gallery floors I passed through a small hallway nesting a rest stop. I enjoy opportunities to sit down. Any time, anywhere, I’ll plop ass. The bonus in this hallway is, you can actually lay down if you so choose (is it really a choice?), and when you do, you’ll be surprised by a ceiling of Kehinde Wiley’s work! Or if you were me, you would be, as I was (I’ve previously posted about his art here). Here’s an upward looking shot:

I’d never seen his work in person so I got a little glitterfied in the belly when I looked up and it was just there, staring back. I wish his artistic production process wasn’t so questionable & assemblified though.

Of course I was there too!
Both necklaces from Portland-based woman-wonder Stone & Honey.

Marina Bychkova.

“Surviving.”
I had no idea that this sort of doll work existed.



I AM INTO IT.
Enchanteddoll.com.

Sarah Maple.

“What can be said about her work is that Maple appears to be trying to figure something out. Much of Sarah Maple’s work revolves around issues of identity – the individual identity of Sarah Maple and how she fits into her world. She’s trying to define her own identity through her work. She seems to be negotiating herself as a woman who is also a Muslim. She is trying to figure out what it means to be a sexual being and a Muslim.”
(from muslimahmediawatch.org)

“Mokhtar Badri, the vice-president of the Muslim Association of Britain, tells Mandrake that his organisation plans to visit the SaLon Gallery, in Notting Hill, west London, to demand that it remove Maple’s painting when it exhibits it next week. “Although we condemn violence, Muslims have a right to express their disgust at this work,” he tells me. “An artist has the right to free speech and to express him or herself, but people also have the right to protest. She clearly wants to provoke a strong reaction from Muslims and that is what she will get.”“
(from thetelegraph.co.uk)

More on Maple:
artthreat article.
freethinker article.
londonstudent article.
myartspace’s article.
sarahmaple.com
swindle article.
telegraph article.
wallscometumblingdown post.

Substantia Jones.

Still on my mission to offer productive body representations…

“The women you see in these images are educators, executives, mothers, musicians, professionals, performers, artists, activists, clerks, and writers. . . .Some are showing you their bodies proudly. Others timidly. And some quite reluctantly. But they all share a determination in altering commonly accepted notions of a narrow and specific beauty ideal.”

they are so beautiful, i could get lost in imagining the possibilities of their bodies.

this last one reminds me of my mother. her face contemplative, loving, wise. she seems to be absorbing her view through her body, with her body. somehow an expression of mortality. my mother is a deeply, wonderfully, spiritual being. this photo warms me: that it might be possible to be Whole.

visit the artist’s website to see more, including women of color, tattoos, and intimacy portraiture. i hesitate to respond to the jones’ use of the word “fat” as a part of her project. she is definitely pushing for fat-positivity, acceptance. i support the project but think it’d benefit from some more informed theory. but this is good work that needs to be done.

to me the women’s bodies here invoke womanhood, sexuality, and safety.

source: adipositivity.com