Femininity, Time and Feminist Art
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Femininity, Time and Feminist Art Clare Johnson University of the West of England, UK Palgrave macmillan
Clare Johnson 2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-0-230-29848-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-33467-4 ISBN 978-1-137-31809-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9781137318091 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
For Mum and Dad
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Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements viii x Introduction 1 1 Fantasies of Adventure, Escape and Return: Tracey Emin s Why I Never Became a Dancer 15 2 Traces of Feminist Art: Temporal Complexity in the Work of Eleanor Antin and Elizabeth Manchester 36 3 Sexuality, Loss and Maternal Desire in the Work of Carolee Schneemann and Tracey Emin 56 4 Feminist Narratives and Unfaithful Repetition: Hannah Wilke s Starification Object Series 77 5 Critical Mimesis: Hannah Wilke s Double Address 100 6 Smooth Surfaces and Flattened Fantasies: Thoughts on Criticality in Sam Taylor-Johnson s Soliloquy III 115 7 Near-Stillness in the Art Films of Sam Taylor-Johnson and Vanessa Beecroft 132 Notes 152 Bibliography 157 Index 166 vii
List of Figures 1.1 Tracey Emin, Why I Never Became a Dancer (1995), single-channel projection with sound, shot on Super 8, 6 minutes, 30 seconds. Tracey Emin. All rights reserved, DACS 2013 19 2.1 Eleanor Antin, Carving: A Traditional Sculpture (1972), 28 gelatin silver prints with labels and wall text, each: 7 5 inches. Courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, New York 41 2.2 Elizabeth Manchester, All My Dresses with All My Shoes (A/I XXIII/i xxiv) detail (2002), wall installation: 552 colour photographs. Image courtesy the artist, copyright Elizabeth Manchester 44 3.1 Tracey Emin, I ve Got It All (2000), inkjet print, 124 109 cm. Tracey Emin. All rights reserved, DACS 2013 60 3.2 Carolee Schneemann, Interior Scroll (1975), performance photograph (photo Anthony McCall). Image courtesy the artist 66 4.1 Hannah Wilke, S.O.S. Starification Object Series: An Adult Game of Mastication, detail (1974 1975), mixed media installation, grid of 28 black-and-white gelatin silver prints, 5 7 inches each. Musée d Art Modern, Centre Pompidou, Paris. Donation by Centre Pompidou Foundation and partial gift of Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon, and Andrew Scharlatt, Hannah Wilke Collection and Archive, Los Angeles. Copyright Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon, and Andrew Scharlatt/Licensed by VAGA, New York, DACS, London 80 5.1 Hannah Wilke, S.O.S. Starification Object Series: An Adult Game of Mastication, detail (1974 1975), mixed media installation, grid of 28 black-and-white gelatin silver prints, 5 7 inches each. Musée d Art Modern, Centre Pompidou, Paris. Donation by Centre Pompidou Foundation and partial gift of Marsie, Emanuelle, Damon, and Andrew Scharlatt, Hannah Wilke Collection and Archive, Los Angeles. Copyright Marsie, Emanuelle, viii
List of Figures ix Damon, and Andrew Scharlatt/Licensed by VAGA, New York, DACS, London 102 6.1 Sam Taylor-Johnson (British, b. 1967), Soliloquy III (1998), C-Print in two parts, 81.38 101.19 inches. Copyright the artist and White Cube, London 117 7.1 Vanessa Beecroft, vb29 performance, FRAC, Le Nouveau Musée, Lyon, France (1997). vb29.004.vb, photographed by: Vanessa Beecroft. 2012 Vanessa Beecroft 136 7.2 Sam Taylor-Johnson (British, b. 1967), David (2004), C-Print, 15.75 23.63 inches. Copyright the artist and White Cube, London 144
Acknowledgements I owe a debt of gratitude to many friends and colleagues who have read or listened to various parts of this book at different stages of its development. In particular I would like to thank Rosemary Betterton, Jackie Stacey, Marsha Meskimmon, Elaine Aston, Julia Moszkowicz, Jeanette Monaco, Andrew Spicer and Alex Franklin. I am grateful to my colleagues within the field of Visual Culture at the University of the West of England who are a continual source of support, encouragement and much-needed humour. I would like to thank the many students who have continued to surprise and delight me with their thoughts on the artworks and ideas contained within this book. I hope this is useful to them. Above all, the support of my friends and family has been invaluable. In particular I want to thank Rachid Hourizi and Zoe Johnson for their love, patience and inspiration. For practical help I would like to thank the University of the West of England for providing me with research leave during 2011. I am also grateful to Felicity Plester, Catherine Mitchell and Chris Penfold at Palgrave Macmillan for their clear guidance and support. Versions of Chapters 2 and 3 have been published elsewhere, as follows: Traces of Feminist Art: Temporal Complexity in the Work of Eleanor Antin, Vanessa Beecroft and Elizabeth Manchester, Feminist Theory, 7:3, December 2006; Preposterous Histories: maternal desire, loss and control in Carolee Schneemann s Interior Scroll (1975) and Tracey Emin s I ve Got It All (2000), Feminist Media Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2010. Finally, I am grateful to the artists and copyright holders for their permission to reproduce the illustrations that appear in this book. x