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Sutton, Benjamin. “Artist Enacts Origin of the World at Musée d’Orsay—And, Yes, That Means What You Think”. New York: ArtNetNews, 5 June 2014. Web. Accessed 23 April 2017. https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/artist-enacts-origin-of-the-world-at-musee-dorsay-and-yes-that-means-what-you-think-35011

Moreland, Quinn. “Forty Years of Carolee Schneemann’s ‘Interior Scroll’”. New York: Hyperallergic.net, 29 August 2015. Web. Accessed 23 April 2017.

https://hyperallergic.com/232342/forty-years-of-carolee-schneemanns-interior-scroll/

Ukil, Suchismita. “The Other: Part One”. India: HelterSkelter, 27 March 2011. Web. Accessed 24 April 2017.

http://helterskelter.in/2011/03/the-other-part-one/

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Core Feminism interrogates the symbology of core imagery which became popularized during the early nineteen sixties to the late nineteen eighties, as catalyzed by movements such as the American Civil Rights and Women’s Liberation Front. ‘Core imagery’ or ‘cunt art’, canonized by feminist icons Judy Chicago and Miriam Schapiro through the agency of the CalArts Feminist Art Program, is the essentialist rendering of female genitalia mindfully constructed in response to our society’s pervasive phallic imagery and tangible patriarchal effects. While a productive step in the trajectory of feminism and contemporary art, it is necessary that we be critical of core imagery. For example, it should be acknowledged that core imagery fundamentally hetero-centric and exclusionary of sexualities on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, particularly of lesbianism. The ‘central cavity’ as a visual trope is intended to indicate a solidarity across the female gender - it is bereft of sexual desire, totally disassociated from anything more than superficial genitalia-based solidarity.

This exhibition provides a brief contextualization of art featuring core tropes, putting works into conversation with one another, all of which feature very visceral renderings, as the viewer can particularly glean in two cases of performance art. Particularly, as one can extract from Stephanie Sarley’s piece (as well as her social-media and other popularity), core feminism still has a significant role in the new wave of feminism which is occurring at this moment in, particularly American, history.

Core Feminism was curated in response to this past January’s massive protest, the Women’s March on Washington. In the same vein as these selections of core works, this protest was objectively substantial and unprecedented, carrying with it a certain political gravity - however, we need to morally investigate whether or not the symbolism of this protest has been more caustic than productive. Pink, crocheted cat-eared ‘pussy hats’ emerged as a signifier of this movement. To a broad based degree, it was overlooked that pussy hats actively exclude female-identified and non-gender identifying peoples whose genders do not align with having a pussy themselves.

By digitally amassing these works, it has been my goal to showcase the consequential nature of core imagery, simultaneously emphasizing to the viewer that this trope is reductive and noxious in regards to both form and content. The narrative of core works arcs across the past four decades - I have very intentionally curated this exhibition based upon the timeliness and political contexts of the artists and their works, as well. As such, it is my hope that Core Feminism is enlightening for all individuals, regardless of their respective positions on contemporary feminism.

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curated by Madison MacDowell

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“Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met Museum?”, 1984, Guerrilla Girls, Print

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“Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into The Met Museum?”, 1984, Guerrilla Girls, Print

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This print, organized in a propagandistic fashion (in terms of font, graphic quality, and economy of content), is included in Core Feminism for its galvanizing quality in content. In many ways, the form of this piece follows the function in that the message was intended to be easily disseminated to those accessing the museums in New York, as well as to the general public. The gorilla mask rendered in this print is an allusion to the attire of the Guerilla Girls, which was generated to protect the anonymity of the collective members. The nude figure which this gorilla mask and other features are superimposed over Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’s Odalisque, which was itself a major development in the historical trajectory of the female nude (being the rendering of a sex worker). Even so, here, the Guerilla Girls were attentive to calling the viewer’s attention to the ingrained patriarchal male gaze within the context of museum curation. The Guerilla Girls are important figures in the canon of feminist work and are critical as insurgent artist and political activists today.

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The Dinner Party: Georgia O’Keeffe Place Setting, 1974-1979, Judy Chicago (1939-present), Ceramic Plate

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The Dinner Party: Georgia O’Keeffe Place Setting, 1974-1979, Judy Chicago (1939-present), Ceramic Plate

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Georgia O'Keeffe, herself an emblem of the core imagery front, was selected to be a place setting at the eminent Dinner Party installation. O’ Keefe’s plate was rendered in a soft and sensuous way to reflect the style of her works while simultaneously retaining the motif of core imagery. Contrarily, Sojourner Truth’s plate at The Dinner Party does not include any recognizable core imagery, implying that her race is her defining characteristic and that she does not share in this same celebrated female identity of possessing a vagina. I chose O’Keeffe’s plate to include for this online exhibition because, from my perspective, her plate is one of the most glaring, non-subtle examples of core imagery included in the entirety of the work. This piece in particular ‘reaches out’ from the base of the ceramic piece, towards the viewer.

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Menstruation Bathroom, 1972,  Judy Chicago (1939-present) and Miriam Schapiro (1923-2015),  Installation

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Menstruation Bathroom, 1972,  Judy Chicago (1939-present) and Miriam Schapiro (1923-2015),  Installation

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Menstruation Bathroom was a groundbreaking room and component of Chicago and Schapiro’s 1972 Womanhouse installation. The project was both a way for women to grapple with their experiences as women while also learning new skills and work collaboratively, the primary goal for many was to encourage the students to begin pushing their role limitations as women and to test themselves as artists.  Here, the artists and their CalArts collective explore the site of the bathroom, particularly in regards to the visibility of menstrual hygiene. Chicago and Schapiro identified that, for women, the bathroom is a space of heightened self-criticism and consciousness. The women behind this project flipped this narrative unto itself, making the private overtly public. Here, a habitual pattern of hygiene and upkeep for women is made visible in an extreme capacity. I am of the belief that Menstruation Bathroom is an archetypal example of both core art but also the feminist narrative.

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Interior Scroll, 1975, Carolee Schneemann (1939-present), Performance Work

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Interior Scroll, 1975, Carolee Schneemann (1939-present), Performance Work

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Interior Scroll, arguably Schneemann’s most distinctive work, epitomizes her career-long investigation of the question, “could a nude woman artist be both image and image maker?” (Moreland). In this exhibition, Schneemann’s body serves as both the subject and the agency of the form. First performed in the forum of Women Here and Now, an event held in the light of the United Nations’ International Women’s Year, Schneemann took to the elevated platform in the middle of the gallery. Then, she enveloped herself in a white cloth, taking up a series of poses as a model for an art studio would. Removing her cloak, Schneeman proceeded to extract a poem, transcribed onto a scroll, from her vaginal cavity and read the poem out to the crowd. She states: “I didn’t want to pull a scroll out of my vagina and read it in public, but the culture’s terror of my making overt what it wished to suppress fueled the image; it was essential to demonstrate this lived action about ‘vulvic space’ against the abstraction of the female body and its loss of meaning”(Moreland). Schneemann was one of the first female artists (along side Marina Abromavic) to enact such a deliberate performance at the site of her own body.

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Untitled, 2016, Stephanie Sarley (1988-present), Canteloupe, Performance Work Captured on Video

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Untitled, 2016, Stephanie Sarley (1988-present), Canteloupe, Performance Work Captured on Video

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This work is emblematic of Sarley’s most notorious artistic conception: emulating female masturbation through the agency of fruit. Sarley’s myriad video shorts all attend to sexual acts and practices of gender. Sarley, like several of these other artists included in Core Feminism, challenges notions of sexuality by ‘making the invisible visible’. Sarley has received criticism that her videos are ‘obscene’, to which she has responded with the obvious - that the viewers are projecting their concepts about sexual obscenity unto the fruit. Sarley also challenges notions of ‘the gaze’ and of the patriarchy with the intention of normalizing female masturbation. I believe that Sarley’s involvement in the contemporary feminist wave is both integral and artful.